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THE 



LAST CAESARS 



OF 




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BYZANTIUM. 



TRANSLATED F^OM THE) FRENCH 
OF 

^ODIERE. 




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15*JC 



PHILADELPHIA : 

H. I,, KILNER & CO., 
Publishers. 



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Copyright, 1891, 

BY 

H. L. KILNBR & CO. 






AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



I offer to the public a volume which may derive 
interest from the present attitude of Russia and 
Turkey in regard to each other, and from the great 
Russian-Turkish question which now claims the 
attention of every European Government. It con- 
tains a simple narrative of the events which agitated 
the Byzantine empire, from the accession of the 
Palaeologi to the conquest of Greece by the Otto- 
mans. I have endeavored to trace, together with 
the rapid progress of the Turks, the decline of the 
Greeks, whilst province after province is subjugated, 
and one by one cities are snatched from their grasp, 
until at last the fall of the capital dealt the fatal 
blow to that power which had ruled for so many 
centuries. 

For the proper treatment of a subject so vast in 
its details, I have been obliged to consult various 
authors and examine numerous documents. I have 
not narrated any important fact without referring to 
the authority whence it was derived. Justice re- 
quires me to mention the names of soiise historians 
from whose works I have drawn so largely, that I 
may name them my fellow-laborers. Such are John 
Cantacuzenus, who shared the throne with John V. 
Palaeologus, and who was an esteemed writer, au- 
thor of a History of the Empire of the East from 1320 

(Hi) 



iv author's preface. 

to 1357; Michael Ducas, a descendant of the im- 
perial family of Ducas, and living at the time of the 
taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II. , who has 
left us a History of the Empire of the East from John 
Cantacuzenus to the conquest of the Empire, in a 
work remarkable for its truth and justice ; and I 
may add to these the names of Laonicus Chalcon- 
dyle, of Athens, and of George Phranzaor Phrantzes, 
Governor of Morea in 1446, from whose pen we have 
a Chronicle of Constantinople from 1259 to 1477. 
Having employed the most scrupulous care in col- 
lecting reliable accounts of the events connected 
with the period of which I write, I trust that my 
work may be favorably received. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 
Return of the Greeks to Constantinople— The 
Emperor Michael Pal^Eologus 7 

CHAPTER II. 
Civil Discord— Progress of the Ottomans. ... 35 

CHAPTER III. 
Bajazet and Tamerlane 64 

CHAPTER IV. 
Peace in the Empire — Manuel Opposes Mustapha 
to the Sultan Amurat II 98 

CHAPTER V. 
Progress of the Ottomans — Union of the 
Churches 126 

CHAPTER VI. 

HUNNIADES AND SCANDERBEG I5I 

(V) 



VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. page 

Preparations for the Siege of Constantinople — 
Consternation of the Greeks 177 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Siege and Fall of Constantinople— Destruction 
of the Empire of the East 201 

CHAPTER IX. 
Mahomet at Constantinople— Conquest of Pelo- 
ponnesus—End of the Dynasty of the Pal^Eo- 

LOGI 234 



THE LAST C1SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 



CHAPTER I. 

RETURN OF THE GREEKS TO CONSTANTINOPLE — 
THE EMPEROR MICHAEL PALAEOLOGUS. 

Family and character of Michael Palaeologus — Disgrace and death of 
Muzalon— Michael Palseologus named Despot, then Emperor — Em- 
bassy of Baldwin to Palseologus— The Emperor fails in his attack 
upon Constantinople— The Caesar Strategopulus marches towards 
the City— Taking of Constantinople— Flight of the Latins— En- 
trance of Michael into the City — Venetians, Pisans and Genoese 
established at Constantinople — Honor accorded to Stratagopulus— 
Michael Palaeologus puts out the eyes of John Lascaris — Grief of 
the Patriarch Arsenius — He excommunicates the Emperor — Insur- 
rection of the Mountaineers of Nicaea— Deposition and exile of 
Arsenius — Abdication of his successor— The monk Joseph elected 
Patriarch— Absolution of the Emperor — Condition of the provinces 
of the East— Expedition against the Duke of Patras— Andronicus 
associated in the Empire— Union of Palaeologus with the Latin 
Church— The Greeks persecuted — Union dissolved— League against 
the Emperor— Death of Michael Palaeologus — Andronicus II. Em- 
peror — Roger de Flor — Exploits of the Catalans— Revolt of Androni- 
cus the Younger. 

As early as the middle of the eleventh century, 
the noble family of the Palaeologi appears with 
honor in the history of Constantinople. If the 
father of the Comneni was able to place upon his 
brow the crown of the Caesars, he was indebted for 
it to George Palaeologus, whose descendants con- 
tinued to command armies, to preside over councils 
of state, and to exercise a vast authority. Their 
alliance was sought by the imperial family, and if 

(7) 



8 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the law of female succession had been rigorously 
observed, the wife of Theodore Lascaris would have 
made way for the elder sister, the mother of that 
Michael Palaeologus, who afterwards elevated his 
family to the throne. To noble birth, Michael 
Palaeologus united brilliant qualities. Brave, ac- 
complished, generous, eloquent, affable in his man- 
ners and conversation, he won all hearts. But the 
affection of the people and the army deprived him 
of favor at Court, and this prince thrice escaped the 
dangers to which he was exposed by the imprudence 
of his followers. The Emperor Theodore Lascaris, 
one of those fugitive Greeks who had replaced and 
maintained the Roman standard on the walls of 
Nicsea in Bithynia, in spite of the efforts of the 
Latins, then masters of Constantinople, had on his 
death-bed recommended his son John, six years of 
age, to Palaeologus, whose talents and influence he 
well knew (1259). At the same time he appointed 
as his guardian, with absolute control, George Muz- 
alon, his chief favorite, associating, however, with 
him the Patriarch of Nicaea, Arsenius. 

The hatred entertained by the Greeks towards 
Muzalon had been expressed during the life of the 
Emperor, but it burst forth in undisguised fury 
after his death. Unable to cope openly with his 
enemies, the tutor endeavored to disarm their malice 
by gentleness ; he convened at the palace an assem- 
bly consisting of the high nobility, the magistracy, 
the most distinguished officers of the army, and pre- 
sented himself before them clothed in the insignia 
of his various dignities. In a crafty discourse, he 
offered aloud from the throne an explanation of his 



THK I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 9 

conduct, expressing his willingness to renounce the 
regency if they should judge his abdication con- 
ducive to the public good. The destruction of 
Muzalon had been determined, but his enemies con- 
sidered that the favorable moment had not yet ar- 
rived; they overwhelmed his pretended modest}?- 
with protestations of esteem and fidelity, and his 
most implacable enemies were apparently the most 
eager to renew their oath of obedience. Among 
these, Michael Palaeologus, who even in boyhood 
had been elevated to the office of Constable or of 
Commandant of the mercenary chiefs, urgently im- 
plored the guardian and savior of the Romans not 
to renounce the guardianship of the young Emperor. 
Never had the Greeks been so perfidious, and the 
regent was soon the dupe of his credulity and am- 
bition. On the ninth day after the death of Lascaris, 
the solemnit}^ of his obsequies was celebrated ac- 
cording to custom, in the cathedral of Magnesia, a 
city of Asia. In the midst of the ceremonies, the 
guards rushed into the church, uttering horrible im- 
precations, and massacred, at the foot of the altar, 
Muzalon, his brothers, and all their partisans. 
Under these circumstances, Michael conducted him- 
self in such a manner as to derive all the advantage 
of the massacre without participating in the crime, 
or, at least, without suffering the odium attaching 
to it. Claiming no honors, he trusted to the effect 
of his liberality, the more valued from the diminu- 
tion of his fortune. The great lords having as- 
sembled to elect a regent, offered him the title of 
Grand Duke, and Arsenius left in his hands all 
executive authority. 



IO THK IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

From that moment the ambitious Palseologus 
regarded his dignity only as a stepping stone by 
which the more easily to ascend the throne to which 
he aspired. The ascendency of his genius either 
won over or divided the factions of the nobles. 
John Ducas-Vataces, the predecessor of Theodore 
L,ascaris, had deposited immense treasures in a 
fortress situated on the banks of the Hermus, under 
the guard of the faithful Varangians, foreign troops 
of Norman descent. The Constable had acquired 
so great an influence over these men, that he ob- 
tained possession of the treasure without opposi- 
tion, and made use of it to corrupt the guards. To 
diminish the amount of taxes, a cause of continual 
discontent among the people, to forbid the ordeal 
by fire and judicial combats, to provide for the 
maintenance of the widows and children of the 
veteran soldiers, were among the first acts of the 
new regent. Knowing the influence of the clergy, 
he strove to secure the adhesion of this powerful 
order. Secret liberalities seduced all the schismati- 
cal prelates, and even the incorruptible Patriarch 
was gained by homage which flattered his vanity. 
At the same time, his emissaries mingling among 
the people, intimated that the tender age of the 
emperor demanded an associate, one in the prime of 
life, who united experience to superior talents. On 
his side, Palaeologus hinted that a precarious au- 
thority should not be conferred upon him who was 
to hold the reins of government. 

These pretensions aroused the whole city of Mag- 
nesia, whither the Court had been removed-. The 
advantages of an elective monarchy were freely dis- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. II 

cussed, and the Grand Duke increased the number 
of his partisans by promises of a just administration 
of the laws and the reformation of all abuses. If 
his assertions could be relied upon, he impatiently 
awaited the moment when the young emperor 
would be able to dispense with his services, and he 
himself could return to the peaceful obscurity of 
private life. His dexterous management silenced 
his opponents; and the title and prerogatives of 
despot were conferred upon him. He thus enjoyed 
all the honors of the purple and the second rank in 
the empire. It was next decreed that Michael 
Palseologus should be crowned emperor jointly with 
John Lascaris. The clergy, who had been con- 
vinced of the necessity of his election by the money 
of the despot, considered that they sufficiently ful- 
filled their duty towards the young son of Theodore, 
by exacting of his colleague an oath to resign his 
authority as soon as Lascaris should attain his 
majority. The prelates assured Palseologus that 
far from perjuring himself by accepting the crown, 
he would merit an immortal crown by so generously 
sacrificing his own repose to the public good. He 
received the imperial diadem in the cathedral of 
Nicsea, from the patriarch Arsenius, who had, how- 
ever, only with extreme repugnance abandoned the 
interests of his pupil. The grateful Palaeologus 
liberally dispensed civil and military employments 
to his partisans, loaded with honors the members of 
his family, and bestowed the title of Caesar upon the 
aged Alexis Strategopulus (1260). 

The new emperor strove to strengthen his power 
by gaining the love of his subjects. He appeared 



12 THK I.AST OflSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

frequently in public, addressed the people, and 
heightened the effect of his eloquence b} r gifts of 
money. He went to Nympha, the usual residence 
of the emperors after they had lost Constantinople. 
Hoping to recover by negotiation, at least, some 
provinces or cities, the emperor Baldwin sent am- 
bassadors to him requesting of him the cession of 
Thessalonica. Palaeologus replied with insulting 
raillery that he could not honorably abandon a city 
which held the remains of his father. "Grant us 
the city of Serres," said the deputies. "It was 
there," answered Palaeologus, "that I fought my 
first battle. ' ' To their demand for Boliva, the Greek 
returned a refusal upon the plea that it was an ad- 
mirable hunting ground. The deputies still insist- 
ing, asked: "What then, will you give us?" 
' ' Nothing ; but if you desire peace 3-ou must pay 
me as an annual tribute the proceeds of the taxes of 
Constantinople. The refusal of your master wall be 
the signal of w 7 ar. I am not deficient in military 
experience, and for success I rely upon God and my 
sword." 

Michael Palaeologus was, in reality, meditating 
no less a project than the expulsion of the Latins 
from Byzantium. The present moment appeared 
most favorable to him; the distress of the city was at 
its height. After having visited all the fortresses 
of Thrace, and augmented their garrisons, he placed 
himself at the head of an army, crossed the Helles- 
pont, marched towards the capital, obtained posses- 
sion of the greater part of the suburbs, and so 
restricted the Latin empire, that it scarcely ex- 
tended beyond the walls of Constantinople. An 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 3 

attack upon Galata proved unsuccessful ; he relied 
upon the concurrence of a perfidious nobleman, who 
was either unable or unwilling to open the gates. 
Every assault was repulsed, and his great losses 
forced him to withdraw into Asia. 

The following spring, the Caesar Alexis Strate- 
gopulus, his favorite general, crossed the Hellespont 
with eight hundred knights and a few hundred foot 
soldiers, in order to watch the movements of the 
Bulgarians. His instructions directed him to ap- 
proach Constantinople, to examine carefully the 
condition of the city, to take advantage of any 
opportunity which might present, but not to ven- 
ture upon a doubtful enterprise. The Greeks scat- 
tered throughout the adjoining country hastened 
eagerly to the camp of the Caesar, whose army soon 
numbered twenty-five thousand men. These vol- 
unteers well knew r the deplorable condition of the 
Latins, which had daily come under their observa- 
tion. They assured the old general that if he would 
attack the capital, it must necessarily fall into his 
power; that the time was favorable, for there re- 
mained within the city only women and children. 
An imprudent young officer, recently nominated 
governor of the colony of Venice, had gone out with 
thirty galleys and the elite of the Latin knights 
upon an expedition against the city of Daphnusia, 
situated on the Black sea, a short distance from 
Byzantium. 

Notwithstanding the prohibition of the emperor, 
the Caesar, after a few moments' hesitation, resolved 
to risk the attack, and took even' precaution neces- 
sary to ensure success. Leaving the body of the 



14 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

army at a certain distance, in order to second him 
as circumstances might require, he advanced under 
cover of the darkness, with a detachment of picked 
men. He introduced into a subterranean passage 
which had been made known to him by a Greek 
deserter, about fifty determined men, for the purpose 
of breaking open the Golden Gate, which had been 
closed many years, whilst others were ordered to 
scale in silence the wall where its height was the 
least. A priest among the assailants was the first 
to cry out: "Victory and long life to Michael and 
John, the august emperors of the Romans ! " This 
was the signal agreed upon. The soldiers stationed 
near the ramparts repeated the acclamation, and 
rushed toward the gate, which was thrown open to 
them. In the meantime Strategopulus had sent 
orders to the remaining troops to advance. 

Day was just dawning when the auxiliary troops, 
consisting of Comans, dispersed in every direction. 
The Caesar had scarcely passed the Golden Gate 
when he trembled at his rashness; fully aware by 
long experience of the dangers incurred by a victor- 
ious army in their capture of a city, he paused, he 
deliberated. But, encouraged by the numerous vol- 
unteers who flocked to his standard, and who urged 
that a retreat would be more difficult and disastrous 
than an attack, he advanced, leading his troops in 
order of battle. The alarm was given, and the sol- 
diers fell upon all whom they found armed, mas- 
sacred them and commenced to pillage the city. In 
the midst of the tumult, the Greeks of Constanti- 
nople, who were attached to their former masters, 
and the Genoese merchants, considering the alliance 



THJ3 LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 5 

recently made between their republic and Michael 
Palaeologus, took a decided stand. The men rushed 
to arms, and the people of the city soon shouted with 
the soldiers of the fortunate Alexis: "Victory and 
long life to the emperors Michael and John ! ' ' 

Awakened by the cries, Baldwin II. rushed from 
his palace; but he did not draw his sword, he only 
thought of seeking safety by flight. He ran to the 
shore, dropping on the way his crown, his sword, 
and all the insignia of royalty. Some Greek sol- 
diers collected these precious spoils and carried them 
to their generals, who, suspending them on the 
point of a lance, exhibited them as a trophy to the 
troops, inciting them thus to deeds of valor and 
crushing the hopes of the Latins. Fortunately the 
fleet, having returned from its fruitless expedition 
against Daphnusia, was entering the Bosphorus. 

Constantinople was irrevocably lost; the Latin 
emperor and the principal families embarked there- 
fore on the Venetian galleys in the midst of the in- 
human railleries of the conquerors. Baldwin, who 
of all his possessions carried with him only the 
empty title of emperor, sailed to the island of 
Negroponte and thence crossed into Italy, where the 
Pope received him with the compassion due so 
great a misfortune. It was in this manner that the 
Greeks recovered Byzantium, 25 July, 1261, fifty- 
seven years after having been driven from it. 

Michael Palaeologus was residing in the palace at 
Nymphea, near Smyrna, when an obscure and un- 
known man, allured by the hope of a recompense, 
carried him the news of the capture of Constanti- 
nople. As the messenger produced no letter from 



l6 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the victorious general, the emperor placed no re- 
liance upon his assertion. He could not be per- 
suaded that Strategopulus, who had left with only 
eight hundred men, could so easily have made him- 
self master of an immense city in which he, the pre- 
ceding year, had been unable to obtain a foothold 
with a large army. He ordered the man to be de- 
tained in prison, promising him a handsome reward 
if he spoke the truth, but death if he lied. After a 
few hours of agitation, alternating between fear and 
hope, the emperor was convinced by the arrival of 
couriers from Alexis, bringing the trophies of vic- 
tory, the imperial ornaments abandoned by Bald- 
win in his precipitate flight. Then he assembled 
the prelates, nobles and senators, and with them re- 
turned thanks to the Supreme Author of all success. 
This event diffused the greatest joy throughout the 
country. Theodore Torinice, an old man of great 
good sense, being on his death-bed, learning the 
cause of the universal rejoicing, not sharing the sen- 
timent of all around him, began to weep. "What!" 
exclaimed his friends, ' ' we have recovered our 
country, and you shed tears?". "Alas!" replied 
the old man, who seemed with prophetic eye to see 
the future, ' ' the empire is now doomed to pillage. 
Michael is master of Constantinople : he will fix his 
residence in that voluptuous city; he will be fol- 
lowed by our warriors who have so long been ac- 
customed to combat the Turks. They will live at 
court, they will become corrupted by an effeminate 
life. The Turks will descend from their mountains, 
they will pass into Europe, they will ultimately ob- 
tain possession of Constantinople and the empire." 



THK LAST C^BSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 7 

Twenty days after the expulsion of the Latins, 
Michael entered Constantinople in triumph, accom- 
panied by his wife, his son, still a child, and by all 
the lords of his court. At his approach, the Golden 
Gate was thrown open, the emperor alighted from 
his horse, and caused to be carried before him a 
miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin, surnamed 
the Guide, in order that the Mother, the Patroness 
and Guardian of the city, might seem herself to 
conduct him to the temple of her Son, the cathedral 
of St. Sophia. Palseologus found his capital in a 
most ruined condition. His first care was to repair 
it ; he invited the families of the old inhabitants 
who were scattered throughout the empire to return; 
he restored to the nobles the palaces of their ances- 
tors; all who presented properly attested claims 
were allowed to take possession of their property. 

Three commercial nations, the Venetians, the 
Pisans, and the Genoese, had manufactories at Con- 
stantinople. Instead of banishing them, he received 
their oath of fidelity, encouraged them, confirmed 
their privileges, and permitted them to preserve 
their own magistrates. In order to prevent any 
disorder, the emperor transferred the Genoese, who 
were the most numerous and who deserved well 
from the Greeks, to the faubourg of Galata, after 
having destroyed the fortifications; the Venetians 
and Pisans continued to occupy their separate 
quarters. 

Michael Palaeologus had conquered but a small 
portion of that vast domain called the Greek Em- 
pire of the East, which the great Theodosius had 
transmitted to his son Arcadius. Egypt and Syria 
2 



1 8 THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

now belonged to the Mamelukes; the empire of 
Trebizonde, founded by the grandsons of Andronicus 
on the southern coast of the Euxine sea, remained 
independent. The Turkish sultany of Iconium ex- 
tended over the greater part of Asia Minor, and of 
all its ancient possessions the empire retained in 
Asia only Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Mysia, Phrygia, 
Caria, and a part of Cilicia. On the continent of 
Europe, the Danube and the gorges of the Hermus 
bounded on the north and south the new kingdom 
of the Bulgarians. Servia, founded in the time of 
Heraclius, bearing in the northeast the name of 
Rascia, occupied, like the Bulgarians, a portion of 
the right bank of the Danube, and extended also 
along the shore of the Adriatic from Ragusa to Scu- 
tari, and south as far as the mountains of Mace- 
donia. The principalities founded by the chiefs of 
the fourth crusade in the centre and south of Greece 
still subsisted ; the Venetians possessed the islands, 
with Modon and Coron in the Morea ; Thebes, 
Athens, Corinth, Patras and Pylos, composed the in- 
dependent principality of Achaia ; that of Epirus 
was formed of Etolia, Arcania, Epirus, and a part 
of Thessaly. The new emperor had acquired pos- 
session only of the southeast coast of Peloponnesus. 
Whilst Michael was striving to restore Constanti- 
nople to its ancient splendor, he was also taking 
steps to procure the return of the patriarch Arsenius, 
who, foreseeing the sad fate awaiting the legitimate 
prince, had abandoned the care of his flock and re- 
tired into solitude. Another patriarch, Nicephorus, 
Bishop of Ephesus, had been installed with great 
honors in the see of Nicaea, and this new election 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 9 

caused a schism in the Greek Church. As by the 
death of Nicephorus the patriarchal see had become 
vacant, the emperor consulted the bishops who had 
come from distant places to attend his entry into the 
capital, and after long deliberation he resolved to 
recall Arsenius. The latter, wearied of his volun- 
tary exile, could not resist the desire to revisit his 
native land, and consented to resume his former 
dignity. He, therefore, returned to Constantinople, 
and the emperor, accompanied by the synod, the 
principal officers of his court, and a large concourse 
of people, conducted the prelate to St. Sophia. 
There taking the patriarch by the hand, he said : 
"Here is the chair of which you have too long de- 
prived yourself: enjoy it now for the sake of the 
salvation of the flock confided to your care." At 
the same time he put him in possession of all the 
property belonging to the patriarchate. 

Hitherto Michael had been too much engrossed 
by other cares to bestow upon Strategopulus the 
recompense of his brilliant conquest. He esteemed 
none he could bestow equal to the service rendered 
him by the General ; he imagined new ways of ex- 
pressing his gratitude, and decreed him sovereign 
honors. Strategopulus, clothed in the decorations 
of a Caesar, was drawn through the streets in a mag- 
nificent chariot, followed by the applause of the 
Greeks intoxicated with joy. His brow was sur- 
mounted by a jewelled crown similar to the em- 
peror's, and he was granted the privilege of wearing 
it the rest of his life. For the space of one year his 
name was to be joined to that of the emperor in all 
expeditions, acclamations, and public prayers. 



20 THE LAST C-^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

They next celebrated the return of the Greeks to 
Constantinople as though it were the establishment 
of a new empire, and Palaeologus desired to repeat 
in the cathedral of St. Sophia the ceremony of his 
coronation. Dazzled by the splendors of the restor- 
ation and the deference paid him by the ambitious 
colleague of John Lascaris, the patriarch allowed 
himself to be persuaded that this second coronation 
injured in no manner the rights of his legitimate 
sovereign, and again he placed the diadem npon 
the brow of Palaeologus. The designs of the em- 
peror, slowly and artfully laid, were now approach- 
ing maturity. He had by degrees and impercepti- 
bly deprived L,ascaris of all honors, he had omitted 
his name in the acts of the government, and had 
finally withdrawn from the august child all the 
support he might have found in his family. Of his 
five older sisters, two had already been given in 
marriage to foreign princes. For the three others 
he selected noblemen of the most distinguished 
birth, but too weak to give him cause to dread their 
vengeance. Having thus deprived the young prince 
of all consideration in the government and of the 
protection of his relatives, he determined to secure 
to himself the possession of the throne, by ordering 
his eyes to be put out. Instead of tearing them 
out, the ministers of this barbarous command de- 
stroyed the optic nerve by means of the reflection of 
rays from a metal plate heated to redness. John 
Lascaris was then sent under a strong guard to the 
castle of Dacybiza, where he languished in obscurity 
for many years. 

Intimidated by the cruelty of the hypocritical 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM, 21 

usurper, his degraded courtiers either applauded 
his act or refrained from any expression of indigna- 
tion. Not so with the patriarch Arsenius, always 
inaccessible to the temptations of fear or hope. 
Upon learning the sad fate of his pupil, he aban- 
doned himself to the deepest despair. Compassion 
and anger roused all the powers of his soul; he beat 
his breast, he cried aloud, he called upon the ele- 
ments to avenge the horrid crime, he tore out his 
hair and beard, exclaiming: "O sun, tremble! O 
earth, lament ! detest this atrocious deed, this un- 
merciful ferocity!" He resolved to have recourse 
to spiritual arms, and in a synod of bishops, ani- 
mated by his example, he excommunicated the em- 
peror and all his accomplices (1262), And yet in 
the midst of his just indignation he pronounced the 
sentence with some mitigation in the formula, omit- 
ting the words which excluded the criminal from 
participation in public prayers. Michael understood 
his dangerous position; he acknowledged his guilt, 
feigned to submit to the anathema, and implored 
pardon of his judge. 

Whilst the emperor was devoting his attention to 
the restoration of Constantinople, Michael, Despot 
of Epirus, was devastating the country, taking 
cities, and even advancing boldly to the frontiers of 
the empire. Palaeologus sent Alexis Strategopulus 
to oppose him. But the Caesar after obtaining some 
unimportant advantage was defeated, and fell into 
the hands of his enemy. The Despot sent him as a 
present to his son-in-law, Manfred, King of Sicily, 
who claimed him for the purpose of strangling him, 
with his sister Anne, widow of the emperor Vataces. 



22 THK LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

The cruelty exercised upon the young Lascaris 
had roused in the souls of the Greeks a just indig- 
nation, but they gave no open expression to their 
discontent. The mountaineers of the environs of 
Nicaea, simple and rural men, were the only ones 
who raised the standard of revolt, and having met a 
child of nine years of age rendered blind by disease, 
they imagined him to be the young Lascaris, the 
prince whom they had sworn to defend w T ith their 
lives. They conveyed him to the mountains, 
clothed him in royal garments, surrounded him 
with guards, paid him the honors due a sovereign, 
and promised to avenge him, to the great astonish- 
ment of the boy, who knew not what they meant. 
Hearing of this strange insurrection, Palaeologus 
sent troops against the rebels. It was impossible to 
force their mountain defences ; but the greater part 
were won over by presents, and after the flight of 
the pretended Lascaris to the Turks, the revolt died 
out. 

On returning from an expedition against the 
Sultan of Iconium, Palaeologus seriously considered 
the means of inducing Arsenius to remove the ex- 
communication fulminated against him. He tried 
in every way to disarm the anger of the Patriarch. 
He begged of him any penance he chose to impose, 
promising to submit to it. He cast himself at the 
feet of the prelate, but the only answer vouchsafed 
to his entreaties was : "Do what you can to efface the 
crime you have committed. ' ' The inflexible Arsenius 
refused to appoint any means of expiation, saying 
that great sins demanded a great atonement. ' ' Must 
I then," said Palaeologus, " abdicate the throne? " 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 23 

Sa}dng these words, he drew his sword and offered 
to resign it to the patriarch, who extended his hand 
to receive it. The emperor, however, who was not 
prepared to pay so dear for his absolution, returned 
his sword to the scabbard, and continued his suppli- 
cations. Then Arsenius indignantly withdrew into 
an inner apartment, leaving the suppliant emperor 
outside the door. 

After these humiliating attempts, Michael, de- 
spairing of overcoming the determination of the 
Patriarch, complained openly of his harshness. He 
assembled the bishops, and adroitly intimated to 
them that if they had no canon for the remission of 
sin, he might possibly find a more indulgent judge 
at Rome. The frightened prelates sent a deputa- 
tion to Arsenius begging him to be more clement ; 
but the deputies were coldly received and reproached 
for their condescension to a criminal prince. A 
synod, in consequence, deposed Arsenius, and a 
guard of soldiers conducted him to the island of 
Proconesia, where he was permitted to see no one 
(1266). Germain, Bishop of Adrianople, a man of 
letters, of agreeable address and good morals, was 
called to the See of Byzantium. But the mildness 
of the new Patriarch displeased the people and in- 
creased the partisans of Arsenius ; besides, Germain 
of himself had no power to absolve the emperor. 
He abdicated the patriarchal throne the very year 
of his election (1267), and retired to a small dwell- 
ing on the sea shore, determined to pass the re- 
mainder of his days in the peace of private life. 
The monk Joseph, confessor of Palaeologus, suc- 
ceeded him. Loaded with honors by his sovereign, 



24 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Joseph withdrew the anathema, and restored the 
penitent to the communion of the faithful. The 
first condition imposed upon the usurper was to 
alleviate the sufferings of the victim of his ambition. 
He assigned a large revenue to the unfortunate 
Lascaris, that he might live in luxury in the castle 
of Dacybize ; and after his reconciliation with the 
Church, he deceitfully professed affection for this 
prince. But the spirit of Arsenius lived in his 
numerous partisans among the monks and clergy, 
and he was ever considered an intruder. 

The new imperial residence had already become 
fatal to the provinces of the East. Palseologus, sep- 
arated from Asia, did not pay sufficient attention to 
those portions of his empire which lay beyond the 
Bosphorus. Avaricious governors oppressed them, 
and after having devastated them, left them a prey 
to the Turks. Still these provinces would have 
been lost to the Greeks, had not the emperor sent 
thither his brother John, a prince honored with the 
title of despot, of tried valor and skill in the mili- 
tary art. John in a short time drove away this 
rapacious horde, and restored the ancient form of 
government ; his courage and activity restrained the 
ever-increasing audacity of the Turks, whose depre- 
dations seemed to justify the prediction of old Sena- 
tor Tornice. The preservation of the East required 
the presence either of the despot or of the emperor ; 
but the former was almost always engaged in some 
expedition against the barbarians on the western 
frontier, and Palaeologus was detained at Constan- 
tinople by the seditions of the partisans of Arsenius, 
who now formed in the state a powerful party, polit- 
ical as well as religious. 



THE LAST C/ESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 25 

Michael, the Despot of Epirus, had, at his death, 
divided the state between his two sons ; to Nicepho- 
rus, the elder, he left the ancient Epirus; but as he 
relied on the valor of John, he bequeathed him that 
portion which he would be obliged to contest with 
the empire, that is, all Thessaly, from Mount 
Olympus to Parnassus. This intriguing prince as- 
sumed the title of Duke of Patras, and soon pos- 
sessed himself of the territory which his father had 
left him to conquer. Palaeologus equipped a num- 
erous army, entrusting the command to the despot 
John. This intrepid general carried by assault 
nearly all the important places in Thessaly. In- 
capable of making a stand against the troops of the 
enemy and deserted by his own men, the Duke shut 
himself up in Neopatras, his capital, which was im- 
mediately besieged. But his destruction was in- 
evitable in a position where his provisions must 
necessarily soon fail. Then he makes a determina- 
tion, inspired by the desperate condition to which 
he is reduced. Favored by the darkness of night, 
he escapes from the city in disguise, and hastening 
to John de la Roche, Grand Duke of Thebes and 
Athens, he obtains from him five hundred Athe- 
nian cavaliers, and falling suddenly upon the army 
of the despot, puts it to flight. The conquered 
prince could not pardon himself for this reverse ; he 
divested himself of the insignia of his dignity, and 
by this voluntary degradation became a simple 
citizen (1271). 

About this period, Andronicus, the eldest son of 
the emperor, having attained his fifteenth year, 
married the daughter of Stephen V., King of Hun- 



26 THK I, AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

gary. This marriage was blessed by the patriarch 
Joseph in the church of St. Sophia, and celebrated 
at Constantinople by festivities in which Palseologus 
displayed the most unbounded magnificence. 
Eager to secure the succession to his family, he 
decided the following year to share the honors of 
the purple with Andronicus, who was accordingly 
crowned and solemnly proclaimed emperor of the 
Romans. He bore this august title during a long 
and inglorious reign, nine years as his father's col- 
league and fifty years as his successor. 

Michael was continually beset both by foreign 
and domestic enemies. His conquest of Constanti- 
nople and his residence in that capital seemed a 
bold defiance to all those Latins who had over- 
thrown the Greek empire and shared the spoils 
under the Pontificate of Innocent III. The Vene- 
tians, particularly, were not disposed to accept 
without a struggle the loss of their numerous pos- 
sessions. In order to profit by the rivalry existing 
between the Venetians and Genoese, the emperor 
stirred up between these two maritime powers a war 
which might prevent the Venetians from taking up 
arms against the Greeks. By strong representations 
on the subject of this alliance, and by the excom- 
munication of the Genoese, Urban IV. notified 
Palaeologus both of the danger which menaced him 
and of the means of averting it. The reunion of 
the Greek Church with the Church of Rome would 
please the West, and excite their interest in the 
perilous condition of the empire. Moreover, the 
brother of Louis IX., Charles of Anjou, who at that 
time became King of Sicify, acquired in 1267, by a 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 27 

treaty with the deposed emperor Baldwin II., a 
claim upon the throne of Byzantium for his daughter 
Beatrix, the claim reverting to himself. The Pope, 
who was suzerain of the King of Sicily, could, by 
the influence he exercised over his vassal, either 
arm or restrain the Christian prince. It was there- 
fore of the utmost importance to the emperor to con- 
ciliate his good will. 

Michael assembled the clergy in his palace, and 
notwithstanding the opposition he met with, he 
proposed a reunion with Gregory X. He did not 
conceal from them that the very existence of the 
empire was at stake, and that he looked to this re- 
union as a means of salvation. Irritated by the 
resistance of the bishops, he promulgated an edict 
in which he declared that in taking Constantinople 
by force of arms he had become the proprietor of all 
the houses in the city ; that he would permit all 
who would obey him to occupy them free of rent, 
but that payment would be exacted of his opponents. 
Some gave in their adhesion because they had not 
the means of making payment ; others went into 
voluntary exile ; a part were punished by the im- 
perial authority, and endured the most ignominious 
outrages; the people, in general, were unshaken in 
their opposition. Joseph, the usurping patriarch, 
published a pastoral letter in which he swore that 
he would never consent to reunion ; Arsenius, the 
deposed patriarch, fulminated from his place of 
exile a new excommunication against the emperor, 
delivered him over to Satan, and died without 
changing his sentiments. 

The emperor remained immovable in his deter- 



28 THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

urination; an embassy composed of ministers and 
prelates upon whom he could rely, embarked for 
Italy (1274), bearing offerings to St. Peter's church, 
precious ornaments, perfumes and jewels. The two 
galleys conveying the ambassadors and their numer- 
ous suite were overtaken by a storm; one struck 
upon the rocks, and the rich presents sent by the 
emperor to Gregory X., were engulfed in the sea. 
The Pope received the envoys of Michael Palseolo- 
gus in the General Council of Lyons at the head of 
five hundred bishops, and shedding tears of joy, 
gave them the kiss of peace. The Greek prelates, 
headed by Germain, the last Patriarch of Constan- 
tinople, sang the Creed and thrice repeated that the 
Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the So?i. 
Three conditions were proposed and accepted : ' ' The 
Pope shall be named in public prayer ; appeals to 
the Court of Rome shall be allowed, and the primacy 
of the Pope acknowledged. " At the conclusion of 
the Council, the ambassadors returned, satisfied 
with the honors which had been bestowed upon 
them. According to the custom of the Latin 
Church, the Pope had decorated the prelates with 
the ring and mitre. They arrived at Constantinople 
in the autumn of the same year. 

But no sooner had the name of the Pope been 
mentioned at mass under the title of Universal 
Bishop, than the patriarch Joseph, the prelates and 
monks, and the body of the people, openly declared 
against union. Joseph resigned his See, and retired 
into a monastery. He was replaced by Veccus, an 
ecclesiastic of known moderation, in whom Palseolo- 
gus had great confidence (1275). But the efforts of 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 29 

the monarch met with little success, only a few 
courtiers and priests yielding to his wishes. 

Some years later, Pope Nicholas III., suspecting 
the sincerity of the Greeks, sent legates to Con- 
stantinople with instructions to require a profession 
of faith from all the ecclesiastics of the empire. The 
emperor was much embarrassed: he feared, should 
the Holy Father become displeased, that he might 
yield to the urgent entreaties of Charles of Anjou, 
and permit him to attack Constantinople, and yet 
he failed to obtain from the clergy the profession of 
faith. Palseologus had recourse to stratagem and 
endeavored to deceive the Pope's legates. He 
solemnly promised the Greek prelates that he would 
permit no change in their customs nor the least 
addition to the Creed of their fathers, advised them 
to deal prudently with the legates, and to settle the 
difficulty by fair words. By this means he obtained 
from them a formula in which ambiguous phrases 
interspersed with sentences from Scripture appar- 
ently contained a declaration of Catholic faith. In 
a long discourse, Palaeologus explained to the 
ennoys all he had done and suffered in order to 
consummate the union of the Greek with the Latin 
Church. That they might have no doubt as to the 
punishment inflicted by his orders upon the secta- 
ries, whatever their rank might be, he directed 
Isaac, Bishop of Ephesus, to imprison the Latin 
prelates, which being done, the legates were con- 
ducted to the dungeons, where they found four 
piinces of the imperial family — Andronicus Pal- 
seologus, Raoul Manuel, his brother Isaac, and John 
Palaeologus, nephew of Andronicus — in chains in a 



30 THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

narrow prison, in consequence of their resistance to 
reunion. The emperor even sent to the Pope two 
of the most obstinate schismatics, to be punished as 
he should think fit. Nicholas III. sent them back 
to the emperor, recommending him to be clement ; 
at the same time he retained his suspicions of 
Michael's sincerity. 

At Constantinople Michael was detested on account 
of his cruelty — he had during a journey into Natolia, 
put out the eyes 06 two princes, his prisoners : his 
favorite generals, his sister Eulogia, his nieces and 
other members of his family deserted his cause, 
which they regarded as sacrilegious; at Rome he was 
doubted. At last Pope Martin IV., successor of 
Nicholas III. (1281), publicly excommunicated 
Michael Palseologus and his adherents as barbarians, 
who had shown no mercy to the unfortunate. The 
only revenge taken by the emperor, was to forbid on a 
festival day, the mention of the Pope's name at mass. 

A league to dethrone Palaeologus was formed be- 
tween Philip, the Latin emperor, heir of Baldwin 
II., the Venetians, and Charles of Anjou, king of 
the two Sicilies, whose sword had hitherto remained 
in its scabbard at the bidding of Gregory X. The 
brother of Sain t Louis gave the command of his 
troops to Soliman Rossi, a nobleman of Provence. 
He obtained possession of Albania and attacked the 
fortress of Belgrade. Palaeologus hastened to its 
relief. Rossi was conquered and made prisoner. 
Taking advantage of the consternation caused by 
this first defeat, the Greeks brought all their forces 
into open field, and in a general battle, victory 
crowned their efforts. But the emperor, aware that 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 3 1 

he could not rely on his troops, trusted for success 
to the conspiracy headed by John de Procida, which 
later was to snatch Sicily from the grasp of his most 
powerful adversary. 

As soon as he w r as relieved from the anxiety 
caused him by Charles of Anjou, Palaeologus 
turned his attention to those neighboring princes 
who had provoked his anger ; among them w T as the 
Prince de Saves, who continued to assume the title 
of Emperor of Trebizond. His next expedition was 
against the Prince of Thessaly, who had broken the 
truce then existing between them. Having arrived 
at a small village in Thrace, he died suddenly at 
the age of fifty-eight (1282), but little regretted by 
his subjects. A few days before his death he 
learned with joy the revolt of Sicily against Charles 
of Anjou and the victory of Peter of Aragon, an 
event which secured the independence of Sicily and 
the preservation of the throne of the Palaeologi. 
His son Andronicus, w r hom he had named as his 
successor, was proclaimed Emperor of the East. 

Andronicus II., the Elder, definitively broke the 
temporary union of the two churches. He recalled 
at once the Greek prelates from exile, deposed 
Veccus, and restored Joseph, now an infirm old 
man, to the partriarchate of Constantinople. The 
temples were purified, penitents reconciled, and the 
new emperor not only refused his father the funeral 
ceremonies due from a son, but even denied him 
Christian burial. Upon the death of Joseph, shortly 
after his return, the patriarchal dignity w T as con- 
ferred on Gregory, who, being soon compelled to 
abdicate, was succeeded by the monk Athanasius. 



32 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

The Mussulmans in the mean time had been mak- 
ing rapid progress, and seemed to threaten with de- 
struction the very throne of Andronicus. The em- 
peror was not powerful enough to cope with them 
unaided, and he was forced to hire the mercenary 
troops of Roger de Flor. These were composed of 
Sicilians, Catalonians, and Aragonese, who had 
fought on sea and land for the houses of Aragon or 
Anjou, and who, upon the restoration of peace, were 
left unemployed. For twenty years they had been 
engaged in warfare ; their country was the field of 
battle or the ship of war. When on the point of en- 
gaging in contest, they struck the ground with their 
swords, exclaiming: "Sword, awake!" Roger set 
sail from Messina, and steered for Constantinople 
with a fleet of four large vessels and eighteen gal- 
leys, bearing eight thousand of his intrepid warriors. 
The emperor lodged the valiant Roger in a palace, 
bestowed upon him the title of grand-duke or ad- 
miral of Roumania, and gave him his niece in mar- 
riage. After a short repose they passed into Asia, 
where the success of their first campaign far sur- 
passed the hopes of Andronicus, and two brilliant 
victories over the Turks, one near Cyzicus, the 
other near Mount Taurus, obtained for their chief 
the surname of Liberator of the East. The arrival 
of another adventurer, Berenger of Eutenca (1306), 
and the good understanding existing between Roger 
and himself, would undoubtedly have saved the em- 
pire many calamities if the Greeks had been able to 
act without perfidy. 

Victorious over the Turks, Roger became an ob- 
ject of dread to the pusillanimous allies ; he de- 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 33 

manded of the emperor his recompense, who, not 
having at command the treasures with which the 
Comneni had purchased the aid of the Prussans 
and Normans, paid the troops in counterfeit coin. 
On his refusal to disband his army, he was invited 
to a banquet at the royal palace of Adrianople, and 
killed b}^ the order of Michael, who had received 
from his father, Andronicus, the honors of the 
purple. At the news of this crime, the adventurers, 
abandoning themselves to transports of fury, swore 
the destruction of the Greeks and massacred the in- 
habitants of Gallipoli. Berenger of Eutenca rav- 
aged the coasts of the Propontis and attempted to 
burn the vessels of his perfidious allies in the harbor 
of Constantinople. Unfortunately he was defeated 
and made prisoner by the Genoese. The Catalans 
elected for their chief Raccafort, son-in-law of Roger, 
and their forces, bearing the title of Army of the 
Franks, Rulers of TJu'ace and Macedonia, crushed 
the imperial troops sent to opose them, and soon be- 
came masters of all Thrace. For five years (1307- 
13 1 2), they were a terror to Constantinople, but 
were, at last, forced by the dissensions among their 
chiefs and want of provisions, to remove from the 
environs of the capital. Andronicus esteemed him- 
self fortunate in being able to turn the course of this 
dreaded soldiery towards the Duchy of Athens, 
which was soon subdued. The victorious Catalans 
divided Bceotia and Attica among themselves, and 
for fourteen }^ears were the scourge of Greece. They 
then disappear from history, but the remembrance 
of their devastations remained long engraved upon 
3 



34 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the minds of the Greeks and passed into the proverb: 
May the vengeance of the Catalans overtake you ! 

Freed from these anxieties, Andronicus the Elder, 
whose long reign is remarkable only for the conten- 
tions of the Greek Church, the invasion of the 
Catalans, and the increase of the Ottoman power, 
was called upon to defend his crown against the im- 
patience of his grandson, Andronicus the Younger. 
The premature death of Michael, his father (1320), 
assured him of obtaining ere long the imperial dig- 
nity ; but fearing lest his dissipation and extrava- 
gance might induce his grandfather to transfer the 
crown to another of his grandsons, he raised the 
standard of revolt. John Cantacuzenus was the 
counsellor and general of the young debauchee, 
whose triumph he secured after a contest of five 
years (1328). Deprived of all power, the deposed 
monarch changed the purple for the monk's habit, 
and died in a cloister. 



CHAPTER II. 

CIVII. DISCORD — PROGRESS OF THE OTTOMANS. 

Weakness of the Empire of the East — Commencement of the power of 
the Ottoman Turks— Reign of Othman— Conquest of Prusa— Orkhan 
—His progress — Discord of the Greeks — Orkhan marries the daugh- 
ter of Cantacuzenus — The latter enters Constantinople — His modera- 
tion — John Palseologus marries the Princess Helena — Orkhan visits 
his father-in-law at Scutari— Civil war between the two Emperors — 
Establishment of the Ottomans in Europe — Palseologus sole Em- 
peror — Conquest of Soliman — His death — Grief and death of Orkhan 
— Amurat I. — Success of the Ottomans — Occupations of Amurat dur- 
ing peace — Organization of the Janizaries — Defeat of the King of 
Hungary— John Palseologus in the West — Conspiracy of Andronicus 
and Saoudji discovered and punished — Amurat takes Thessalonica — 
Andronicus is proclaimed emperor — He returns to his allegiance — 
Battle of Cassora — Death of Amurat I. — Bajazet I. his successor — 
Humiliation of the Emperor — His death. 

After having escaped falling into the power of 
Chosroes and other enemies equally dreaded, the 
city of Constantine had recovered under some of her 
emperors an apparent strength which, however, 
covered a real weakness. Unskilled in arms, the 
people seemed to forget the implacable enemies 
who threatened her, and who awaited only a favor- 
able opportunity to overthrow an empire already 
undermined by revolutions and corruption of morals. 
Strange to say, the degenerate Csesars, absorbed in 
continual dissensions and surrounded by luxuries, 
looked with indifference upon the terrible drama 
which was being enacted, and they did not perceive 
that it necessarily involved the loss of their crown. 
If at times they awoke from their lethargy and lis- 

(35) 



36 THB LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

tened to the distant mutterings of the storm, they 
consoled themselves by thinking it was remote, and 
then relapsed into their fatal lethargy. Therefore, 
after the abdication of Cantacuzenus, historical in- 
terest attaches exclusively to the Ottomans, who, 
docile to the voice of their skillful and valiant 
chiefs, were soon to deal the last blow to the de- 
crepit empire of Constantinople. Let us then con- 
sider this new people, destined by Providence to re- 
place in Europe and Asia the degenerate race of 
Greeks. 

The domination of the Seljuk dynasty in Asia 
Minor no longer existed ; upon the death of the 
brave Aladin, their last Sultan, their empire, already 
subjugated by the Moguls, was divided by the 
emirs into ten independent states. The most power- 
ful of the emirs was Caraman, who left the name 
Caramania to the portion of the southern coast of 
Asia Minor which had fallen to his share, and Oth- 
man, the son of Orthogrul, who imposed his name 
upon the Turkish horde whom he commanded. 
Gifted with all the qualifications of a good soldier, 
Othman, taking advantage of circumstances, led his 
followers into the plains of Bithynia and Paphla- 
gonia. According to the Turkish account, the lofty 
destiny of his posterity was made known to him in 
a dream. One night as he lay asleep in the house 
of the Cheik Edebali, he had the following vision : 
He beheld himself and his host extended side by 
side, both in a deep sleep. From the breast of the 
cheik he saw the moon, the star of Mahomet, arise 
and increase visibly until it became full, when it 
descended and entered his breast. From his body 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 37 

sprang a tree with firm and solid roots, with strong 
branches of extraordinary beauty, which lengthened 
as though to cover all lands and seas. The shadow 
of this tree fell upon three parts of the earth as far 
as the horizon. Under its shelter arose high moun- 
tains, the Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus and Hemus, 
which resembled the four columns of the eternal 
tent. From the roots of the tree flowed the Tigris, 
Euphrates, Nile, and Danube, covered with vessels 
as the sea. The fields were rich with harvests, the 
mountains covered by thick forests whence gushed 
out numerous springs watering the flowery meadows 
and the arbors of roses of this Eden. In the valleys 
his eye dwelt upon cities ornamented with domes, 
cupolas, pyramids, obelisks, magnificent columns 
and lofty towers, upon the summit of which glis- 
tened the Crescent ; from galleries arose the call to 
prayer mingling with the chant of an infinite multi- 
tude of nightingales and the chattering of parrots, 
variegated with a thousand different colors. The 
various inhabitants of the air sang and warbled 
in the interwoven branches and amid the countless 
leaves, all cut in the form of a sabre. Next a strong 
wind blew which turned the points of these leaves 
towards the different cities of the world, and princi- 
pally towards the city of Constantine, which, situ- 
ated at the junction of two seas and two continents, 
resembled a diamond encased between two sapphires 
and two emeralds, and seemed thus to form the 
most brilliant stone of the ring of a vast domination 
embracing the whole world. Othman was about to 
place the ring upon his finger when he awoke. 
This tree was the emblem of the son of Orthogrul, 



33 TH£ I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the true founder of the race and domination of the 
Osmanlis or Ottomans. 

The new conqueror crossed the Hellespont, and 
his presence spread terror throughout the Chersone- 
sus, whence the inhabitants fled and left the land 
uncultivated for ten months. Having taken Icon- 
ium from the Mogols, Othman attacked the brave 
knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in the island of 
Rhodes where they had just established themselves, 
but he was repulsed by a Frenchman, Foulquis de 
Villaret, Grand-master of the order (13 15). He 
soon recovered from this blow, deriving his advant- 
age from the internal dissensions of the Greek em- 
pire, and during the twenty-seven years of his reign, 
he was successful in all his incursions and subdued 
a large portion of the states of the Seljukian Turks. 
The conquest of Prusa, one of the most important 
cities of Asia Minor, by his son Orkhan, was the 
crowning glory of his arms. Proud of having won 
a capital and a tomb worthy of him, Othman died 
the same year (1326), loaded with honor and vener- 
ated by the Ottomans, who attributed to him all the 
great qualities which usually fall to the lot of found- 
ers of an empire. As he was about to breathe his 
last, he gave his parting instructions to Orkhan, his 
eldest son, who was to succeed him, recommending 
him to avoid tyranny in governing, to regard justice 
as the firmest foundation of his throne, to be the 
protector of his people, and to rule with equity and 
mildness. Four months before his death, he had 
consigned to the grave his father-in-law, the Cheik 
Edebali, and a month later his cherished wife, 
Malchatum. 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 39 

The Ottoman empire may property date from the 
fall of Prusa. Ascending the throne between the 
coffin of a father and the cradle of a son, crowned 
with the laurels of a recent victory, Orkhan trans- 
formed this city into a Mohammedan capital. He 
built a mosque, a hospital and a college, over which 
presided learned professors, who attracted to it 
Persian and Arabian students from the schools of 
the East. His first act was to offer to divide the 
wealth left by his father with his brother Aladin, 
who, however, refused to accept even the half of the 
horses, cattle and sheep, requesting only for his 
residence a village situated in the plain of Prusa, on 
the western shore of the Nilufer. ' ' At least, ' ' said 
Orkhan, "since you refuse to possess either horses, 
cattle or sheep, be a shepherd of my people, I mean 
a vizir." Aladin, yielding to the wishes of his sov- 
ereign, became the first vizir of the empire, and 
shared with the prince the cares of the government. 
Inexperienced in military life, Aladin devoted him- 
self entirely to the civil administration, and by wise 
institutions gave stability to the empire, whilst his 
brother extended it by new conquests. Orkhan 
directed a particular dress for the soldiery to dis- 
tinguish them from the citizens, ordering that they 
should have the exclusive right to wear a white 
turban. He coined money stamped with his own 
name, and removed from circulation the pieces bear- 
ing the impress of the Seljukians of Iconium. 

The troops of Othman had been composed of 
bodies of Turcoman cavalry, who served without 
pay and fought without discipline. He had given 
the precedent of recruiting his army from captives 



40 THK I, AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

and volunteers. His son determined to perfect this 
system and to form a soldiery who, abjuring their 
country, family and religion, should, in future, re- 
gard the will of their chief and a passive obedience 
as their country, family, and religion. In pursuance 
of this idea, he ordered Christian children made 
prisoners in infancy or before they had come to the 
use of reason, to be brought up in Islamism; and of 
these unfortunate orphans who knew no other pro- 
fession than arms he formed a formidable body, to 
which the Ottomans, in a great measure, owed 
their success. Their numbers amounted at first to 
twenty-five thousand men, and by the care and in- 
telligence of Orkhan they were provided with ma- 
chines constructed by skillful workmen for besieging 
and assaulting cities. 

Orkhan, pursuing his victorious career in Asia 
Minor, obtained possession of Nicomedia in 1328, 
of Nicaea five years later, and subjugated the whole 
of Bithynia as far as the shores of the Bosphorus 
and the Hellespont. At this period the throne of 
Constantinople was occupied by Andronicus III., 
who at last enjoyed the object of his ambition. 
This prince was skilled in the art of war, and en- 
dowed with extreme activity. His favorite, Can- 
tacuzenus, encouraged him by his counsels, and 
urged him to great exertion. An army sent by the 
son of Othman against the Greeks was defeated at 
Trajanopolis (1330), and later Andronicus and Can- 
tacuzenus drove back thirt}^-six vessels which were 
advancing against Constantinople. But the emper- 
or's passion for theological discussions deprived him 
of aid from the West. A few monks, maintaining 



THE IvAST C.ESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 4 1 

with bitterness some silly reveries, were condemned 
by a council held at St. Sophia. Andronicus III. 
could not resist taking part in the quarrel, and died 
from excessive fatigue after a violent discussion, 
leaving the crown to a son nine years old, John 1st 
Palaeologus, of w T hom Cantacuzenus was appointed 
guardian. 

The favorite, who had never ceased to aid his 
master by his counsel and labors, who had refused 
the crowm which the emperor during an illness had 
urged him to accept after the death of Andronicus, 
gave free scope to his ambitious desires. He at first 
expressed his unwillingness to exercise the charge 
of regent, under pretense that the office was coveted 
by John of Apri, and he yielded at last only to the 
reiterated request of the empress mother, after ex- 
acting from her an oath that she would not be influ- 
enced against him by the calumnies of his enemies. 
He studiously concealed his aspirations to the 
throne. Having subdued the Latins of Pelopon- 
nesus, and imposed a tribute upon them, the re- 
gent returned to Constantinople to crush the power- 
ful faction of his adversaries, at the head of w T hich 
were the Patriarch and grand chamberlain, Apo- 
cauque. Being called from the city a second time to 
superintend the preparation of an expedition to be 
sent against the Latins of the south and the Prince 
of Persia, who was devastating Macedonia, Cantacu- 
zenus was informed that the empress, yielding to 
the solicitations of Apocauque, had joined the ranks 
of his enemies, that his mother and his family were 
detained as prisoners in their own house under strict 
guard, and that he himself had been declared a pub- 



42 THK LAST Ci^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

lie enemy. He offered to deliver himself to the em- 
press, and to trust the result of an investigation to 
her decision, but the soldiers urged him to make 
war; the chiefs were eager to support him, and per- 
suaded him to assume the title of emperor. He was 
crowned at Didymoticus, and the greater part of 
Thrace and Macedonia declared in his favor. 

The new Caesar was obliged to turn his attention 
to organizing his army, and selecting chiefs who 
would be devoted to his interests. When, however, 
the city of Adrianople abandoned his cause, he 
offered peace to his enemies. But his envoys were 
coldly received at Constantinople, and the empress, 
although inclined to effect a reconcilation, was 
forced by Apocauque to declare war. A second 
time Cantacuzenus sent monks from Athos to solicit 
peace, and again the Patriarch caused his proposi- 
tion to be rejected. At the same time the court 
displayed the greatest energy. Apocauque crowned 
the young emperor, who in return bestowed upon 
him the title of Grand Duke. Some of the relatives 
of Cantacuzenus were put to death, and his mother, 
cast into prison, died from the effects of ill-treat- 
ment. The usurper, determining to prosecute the 
war with the utmost vigor, sought to secure his re- 
venge by soliciting foreign aid, and he made an 
alliance with the Prince of Servia and the Khan of 
Lydia, Oumour-Beg, whom the knights of Rhodes, 
the real defenders of the Christian name, recalled 
by menacing Smyrna, his capital (1343). 

Another Turkish ally more powerful than Ou- 
mour-Beg solicited the hand of the daughter of Can- 
tacuzenus. This was Orkhan, whose assistance was 



THK IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 43 

at that time sought by the empress mother, Anne 
of Savoy ; he pledged himself to fulfil towards the 
regent all the duties incumbent upon a subject and 
a son, if he would accept him for his son-in-law. 
The ambitious Cantacuzenus gave his daughter 
Theodora in marriage to the prince of the Otto- 
mans. Orkhan sent thirty vessels bearing the 
highest nobles of his court, accompanied by a large 
body of cavalry, to form an escort for his imperial 
bride. The father of Theodora surrounded by the 
grand dignitaries and his family, met them before 
the camp of Selymbria. In front of the city was 
erected a magnificent pavilion, under which the 
empress Irene passed the night with her three 
daughters. Early in the morning the young bride, 
according to an ancient custom of the Byzantine 
court, ascended a platform hung with the richest 
tapestry. The troops were under arms, the emperor 
at their head on a charger superbly caparisoned, 
and attended by the imperial guard. At a given 
signal the heavy silk curtains embroidered in gold 
thread which encircled the throne were withdrawn, 
and the bride appeared in the midst of numerous 
attendants bearing nuptial torches. Immediately 
the air resounded with the music of trumpets and 
other instruments, and various choirs united in song 
to celebrate the virtues of the daughter of Caesar. 
The festivities continued for several days, during 
which the Greeks and Turks mingled together as 
brethren (1346). 

About the same time Cantacuzenus was delivered 
from his most bitter enemy. Apocauque had cast 
into prison all against whom he entertained the 



44 THK IyAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

slightest suspicion. Some of the prisoners succeeded 
in loosening their chains, and one day when he 
went to visit them, they fell upon him, put him to 
death, and freed their companions in misfortune. 

Upon the discovery of several conspiracies formed 
against his life, Cantacuzenus considered that it was 
necessary to strike a decisive blow and consummate 
his usurpation by taking possession of the capital. 
Communicating with his numerous partisans within 
the city, a day was appointed upon which they were 
to throw open the Golden Gate to give him entrance. 
He presented himself at the head of his army, and 
he was admitted without opposition. He proposed 
terms to the empress, who at first refused to con- 
sider any proposition, but yielding at last to the 
entreaties of her son, fifteen years of age, she ac- 
cepted the conditions of the conqueror. It was 
agreed by both parties that there should be a gen- 
eral amnesty, that the two emperors should reign 
jointly, the younger to be guided for ten years by 
the advice of the elder. So great was the modera- 
tion of Cantacuzenus that it was a subject of aston- 
ishment to all. He boasts of it himself, saying: 
' ' Who could believe that after having suffered so 
much from his enemies, he did not profit by his vic- 
tory to destroy them ; that when he might have an- 
nihilated the vanquished, he treated with them as 
his equals? Such a course of conduct indicates 
something superior to human nature." 

Cantacuzenus continued to exhibit himself as the 
mildest of usurpers. But notwithstanding his re- 
spectful deportment, his presence always intimi- 
dated the empress ; he strove by every means in his 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 45 

power to reassure her, even offering in marriage his 
daughter Helen to the young emperor. The proposal 
was accepted, and from that time the reconciliation 
appeared sincere. 

In the meantime Cantacuzenus was much dis- 
turbed by the successes of the Prince of Servia, who 
had ravaged Macedonia, and he found it necessary 
to convene the States in order to obtain supplies. 
He was also troubled by the conduct of his eldest 
son Matthias, who, listening to evil counsel, pos- 
sessed himself of Didymoticus and Adrianople, with 
the intention of establishing an independent prin- 
cipality. He was persuaded by his mother to aban- 
don his odious design, but the joy of the father at 
this act of obedience was clouded by the death of 
his youngest son, who was carried off by the plague 
in 1348. 

The same }^ear Orkhan, accompanied by his fam- 
ily and the officers of his court, visited his father-in- 
law at Scutari, and for some days the two princes 
enjoyed together with apparent cordiality the pleas- 
ures of the chase and the festivities of the court. 
Cantacuzenus and Orkhan were seated at one table, 
the four sons of the Ottoman chief occupied another 
at a short distance, and surrounding them the Turks 
and Greeks were placed upon carpets extended upon 
the ground. Orkhan remained in the camp near 
the fleet, whilst Cantacuzenus went to Constanti- 
nople with his daughter, Theodora, who passed 
three days with her mother and sisters. The son- 
in-law of the emperor returned to Bithynia with his 
family, loaded with presents. But the friendship of 
Orkhan was subordinate to his political or religious 



46 THE I,AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

interests, and in the war against the Genoese he 
did not hesitate to join the enemies of his father-in- 
law. 

Later, with the aid of Pasha Soliman, eldest son 
of Orkhan, Cautacuzenus retook from the despot of 
Servia, Thessalonica, Burhcea and the greater part 
of Macedonia. The young emperor wished to con- 
tract an alliance with the conquered prince, with 
the hope of becoming sole master of the throne ; but 
the usurper opposed his design and restrained his 
ambition for some time through the influence of the 
widow of Andronicus III. But when the princes of 
Servia and Bulgaria and the Republic of Venice had 
espoused the cause of John Palaeologus, he resolved 
to apply to the Ottomans, who were, at last, about 
to secure a firm foothold in Europe. 

Having returned to Asia, Soliman was seated one 
evening on the eastern shore of the Propontis ; the 
moonlight cast upon the sea the shadow of the ruins 
of the ancient Eyzieus, a colony of Milesians famous 
in Grecian and Roman history, which after many 
vicissitudes, in a long struggle with the great powers 
of the universe, had become a second time the capi- 
tal of the province of the Hellespont. With his 
eyes fixed upon the clear waters in which were mir- 
rored the marble porticos, the avenues of columns, 
the stately ruins of the temples of Cybele, of Proser- 
pine and Jupiter, over which flitted the clouds of 
the sky, he meditated upon this departed grandeur, 
and he seemed to behold palaces and temples arising 
from the abyss, and fleets sailing proudly over the 
waters. Mingling with the murmur of the waves 
he heard mysterious voices, from the moon in the 



TH3 IvAST C^SSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 47 

east he saw descending a silver streamer which 
floated over the abyss and united Europe and Asia. 
It was the same luminary which, having formerly 
arisen from the breast of Edebali had sunk into the 
breast of Othrnan. This dream had presaged to his 
grandfather the empire of the world ; the remem- 
brance aroused his courage, and from that moment 
he determined to unite Europe to Asia by the force 
of arms. 

Having consulted the old men who had grown 
gray in the service of his family, and having long de- 
vised some means to traverse the straits secretly, he 
at last ventured to cross in a boat with a friend, and 
pushed on towards Tympa to reconnoitre the coun- 
try, proceeding beyond Gallipoli. There he seized 
a Greek, whom he took with him to Mysia to em- 
ploy him as a guide. Informed by the Greek, who 
proved a traitor to his countrymen, of the defense- 
less condition of the castle, he formed the project of 
surprising it. The following night, embarking with 
fifty-nine determined soldiers, he succeeded in cap- 
turing the fort of Tzympe, and this the more easily 
because on account of the harvest the inhabitants 
were dispersed through the fields. In the course of 
a few days he had garrisoned the fort with three 
thousand men (1356). 

Whilst the Ottomans were thus establishing them- 
selves at Tzympe, Cantacuzenus had begged the as- 
sistance of Orkhan against John Palseologus; yield- 
ing to his solicitations he sent Soliman at the head 
of ten thousand Turkish cavaliers, who landed at 
the mouth of the Maritza. The impetuosity of the 
Mohammedan troops could not be restrained, and 



48 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

they committed great disorders; Soliman, having 
crushed the Bulgarians and the Servian auxiliaries 
of John Palseologus, returned to Asia loaded with 
booty. Then Cantacuzenus demanded of this prince 
the restitution of Tzympe in consideration of a thou- 
sand ducats. The emperor had despatched the 
gold, and Soliman had given orders to surrender 
the castle, when a frightful earthquake destroyed 
the walls and fortresses of the greater part of the 
cities of Thrace. The houses of Gallipoli were 
overthrown, and the breaches made in the walls 
offered an easy entrance to the soldiers, whose pro- 
jects of pillage and conquest were thus favored by 
the earthquake (1357). At the same time other 
places, such as Konour, Boulair, Malgora, cele- 
brated for its honey, Kypsale, a short distance from 
Gallipoli, and Rodosta, where the Thracian prince 
Rhesus had formerly reigned, admitted new Turkish 
colonies. Whilst complaining of the violation of 
the treaties, Cantacuzenus offered forty thousand 
ducats for the ransom of these places, particularly 
of Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespout, which he 
was averse to abandoning to the Turks. Orkhan 
promised to persuade his son to restore these cities, 
but he always evaded any definite settlement of the 
question. That very year the abdication of Can- 
tacuzenus secured to the Ottomans their first con- 
quest in Europe. 

The affection of the people for John Palaeologus 
exhibited itself on many occasions, and his efforts 
to make himself the emperor were crowned with 
success. In spite of his exertions to the contrary, 
his father-in-law had proclaimed his son Matthias 



THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 49 

emperor. Aided by a noble Genoese, to whom he 
had promised his sister in marriage, and furnished 
with two galleys mounted by twenty-five hundred 
men, he entered Constantinople. The arrival of the 
young emperor agitated the capital; men were un- 
certain what step to take, hesitating between their 
good feeling towards their prince and the fear of 
Cantacuzenus, who had under his orders disciplined 
troops of Catalonians. But weary of civil war, the 
usurper himself proposed peace. Three days later 
a treaty was signed between the two emperors, ac- 
cording to which they were to possess an equality 
of power; hardly was it signed when, to the aston- 
ishment of all, Cantacuzenus, renouncing the crown, 
divested himself upon the spot of the imperial orna- 
ments, cut his hair and retired to the monastery of 
Mangana, where he assumed the name of Joseph. 
The empress Irene joyfully followed the example of 
her husband, received the veil with the name of 
Eugenia, and entered the convent of Martha. 

Many reports in circulation attributed the retreat 
of this incomprehensible man to the violence of 
John Palaeologus; but from the solitude of his 
cloister the new monk denied the charge and justi- 
fied the conduct of his son-in-law. " Cantacu- 
zenus," he said, "has abdicated the throne volun- 
tarily, and he was not forced to take the step; had 
he wished to preserve it, no one could have taken it 
from him. Palseologus did not offend by the viola- 
tion of his oath, and all must know that he did 
nothing to dissatisfy his father-in-law. Cantacu- 
zenus acquired the throne unwillingly; he experi- 
enced many changes of fortune; he bore them with a 
4 



50 THE I. AST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

spirit and courage which nothing could subdue. 
Having triumphed over his adversaries, he saw 
himself about to be plunged again into civil war; 
then he despaired of the Romans, from whom their 
ancient wisdom has departed, and he abdicated the 
empire.' ' 

From the depth of his retreat, where his unquiet 
spirit sought repose, Cantacuzenus exerted himself 
to maintain a good understanding between his son 
Matthias and Palseologus, who had promised to 
recognize this son as his colleague in the empire. 
Their hatred, restrained for a time, at last conducted 
them to the field of battle, in the plains of Philippa, 
a city of Thrace. Matthias was conquered, made 
prisoner, and sent under guard to the island of Les- 
bos. Palaeologus offered him his liberty if he would 
lay aside the purple and descend to the second rank 
in the empire. Cantacuzenus emerged from his re- 
treat to induce his son to accept the proposition of 
the emperor. He depicted to him in a powerful 
manner the dangers which surround the throne and 
the terrible responsibility of those who govern. 
Matthias consented, but most unwillingly, to make 
a formal renunciation of his claim. 

The abdication of Cantacuzenus, the only man 
capable by his talents and wisdom of saving the em- 
pire, w 7 as a misfortune for the State. That skillful 
usurper understood how to hold in check or conquer 
his enemies. His last advice to his countrymen 
was such as induced them to avoid an imprudent 
war, and he bade them compare the number, disci- 
pline and enthusiasm of the Turks with the weak- 
ness of the Greeks. But the obstinate vanity of the 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 5 1 

young emperor despised this prudent advice, and 
the first year of the abdication Soliman crossed the 
straits, subjugated the cities which he attacked, 
possessed himself of the Chersonesus, and entered 
Thrace without opposition. In the midst of his 
brilliant achievements the hero lost his life by a fall 
from a horse during a military exercise. The tomb of 
the founder of the Ottoman power in Europe, erected 
on the shore of the Hellespont, seemed to invite the 
inhabitants of Asia to a pilgrimage of conquest. 
The aged Orkhan shortly afterwards died of grief 
caused by the loss of his grand vizier, his beloved 
son (1360). His reign of thirty-five years had been 
stained by no barbarity, by no murder. The politi- 
cal institutions of this just prince and valiant war- 
rior have caused historians to name him the Numa 
of the Ottomans. 

The Greeks had not time to congratulate them- 
selves upon the death of their enemies ; they found 
another still more terrible in the person of Amurat, 
eldest son of Orkhan and brother of Soliman. As- 
cending the throne at forty-one years of age, Amurat 
surpassed the most illustrious kings or commanders 
of armies by his promptness and indefatigable ardor 
in action. Repose was hateful to him, and when 
he had not enemies to contend with, he sought vent 
for his warlike disposition in the chase. Immedi- 
ately upon his accession, he turned his attention to 
Asia, where he menaced and signalized his bravery 
by the conquest of Ancyra, a fortified city, a com- 
mercial centre which nature seemed to have favored 
in a particular manner. Having restored tran- 
quillity in this quarter, he determined to follow up 
the conquests of his brother in Europe. 



52 THK I^AST C^SSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

His experienced lieutenants became masters, al- 
most without opposition, of Nebetos, Tscharli, 
Kechan, and Didymoticus. Adrianople, renowned 
for its advantageous situation at the junction of 
three rivers, fell the following year (136 1). It after- 
wards ranked as the second capital of the Ottoman 
empire. Doriscus, Bershaea, Philippopolis, and a 
large number of their neighboring fortresses being 
reduced to obedience, gave to the Mussulmans a 
passage through Thrace to the north. 

The uninterrupted successes of his enemies alarm- 
ed the Greek emperor : he asked for peace and ob- 
tained it. Amurat had, hitherto, following the ex- 
ample of his predecessors, dispensed himself from 
being present with the people at public prayer. A 
mufti, who is both priest and judge, had the bold- 
ness to punish him for this by refusing to admit his 
testimony in a civil suit brought before his tribunal. 
Astonished by such a procedure, Amurat demanded 
the cause : " My lord," said the mufti, "be not sur- 
prised at my conduct. As emperor, your word is 
sacred, and no one would dare to doubt it ; but here 
it is of no value, a court of justice accepts not the 
testimony of a man who does not unite in public 
prayer with the body of Mussalmans." Amurat, 
intensely moved by the rebuke, acknowledged him- 
self guilty, and in expiation of his fault constructed 
at Adrianople a sumptuous edifice opposite the im- 
perial palace. The edifice preserves to this day the 
name of its founder. 

About the same period Amurat gave a regular 
organization to the body of soldiery created by his 
father which was to be the terror of nations, and 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 53 

sometimes of the sultans themselves. He asked a 
celebrated dervish to bless them and select for them 
a banner and name (1362). Standing at the head 
of the ranks, the dervish extended the sleeve of his 
robe over the head of the soldier the nearest to him 
and said with solemnity : "Let them be called 
Janizaries (yengi cheri, or new soldiers). May their 
courage be always undoubted, their swords sharp, 
and their arms victorious! May their lances be ever 
ready to strike their enemies, and wherever they go, 
may they return to their homes from the dangers of 
war unharmed ! ' ' 

The peace was not of long duration ; the king of 
Hungary, Louis the Great, and the sovereigns of 
Servia, Bosnia and Wallachia, united to attack the 
conquerors from Asia, who were already menacing 
their frontiers. They advanced by forced marches 
as far as Maritya, about tw T o days' march from Ad- 
rianople. The Ottoman victory was now complete, 
and the plain to this day is called Sir/ Vindrughi, 
or defeat of the Servians (1363). This check of the 
warlike tribes of the Danube filled John Palaeologus 
w T ith the deepest anxiety. The emperor, a sad con- 
trast to the majesty of Constantine the Great, left 
his capital and visited the west ; he solicited from 
the Christian princes aid of men and money; he 
proclaimed his submission to the Church of Rome, 
abjured schism at Viterbo in the hands of Urban V. 
and promised to bring over all his subjects to the 
communion of the Latin Church. But he returned 
to the east unaccompanied by even one soldier. 
Deprived of all hope by the death of the aged Pon- 
tiff, he went to Venice, where he remained some 



54 TH£ LAST OSBSARS OB BAZANTIUM. 

time. As he was about to leave the city, he was 
arrested by some merchants who had lent him a 
considerable amount of money, and the august 
prisoner was restored to liberty only after his son 
Manuel had satisfied their demands by selling all he 
possessed. 

Amurat marched from conquest to conquest; 
Ourosch, despot of Servia, having fallen in a battle 
against the nobles (1367), Boulks Lazarus was pro- 
claimed his successor, but he was able to retain only 
southern Servia. Wonkassawitsch, who had occu- 
pied the northern part, was surprised by the Turks 
at night, and Amurat obtained possession of Acar- 
nania and Servian Macedonia. He imposed a trib- 
ute upon the Greek emperor, and deprived him of 
Guistendil, a city founded by Trajan and of impor- 
tance on account of its baths, its public buildings, 
and the gold and silver mines in its vicinity (1371). 
With equal activity he conquered the King of the 
Bulgarians, whose daughter he married, and Boulks 
Lazarus, who became his tributary. 

Master of the Greeks, and already feared on the 
shores of the Danube, Amurat rested from his long 
continued toil. During an interval of six years, 
undisturbed by any w 7 arlike enterprise, he devoted 
himself unremittingly to the internal affairs of his 
kingdom, and bestowed particular attention upon 
the military organization. He divided the lands 
given to the Spahies into small fiefs (Jimar) and 
large fiefs (szamet), and to the proprietors of the 
former he gave the name of timarli. He instituted 
the Voinaks, troops composed of his Christian sub- 
jects, who in time of war performed the 1 most hu- 



THE LAST C/^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 55 

miliating functions. Amurat next summoned his 
tributary, John Palseologus, to accompany him in his 
expedition against Asia Minor. The emperor be- 
held the Christian King of Armenia despoiled of his 
states and condemned to exile; he saw the Seljou- 
kian emir of Kermian bestow his daughter in mar- 
riage, with the finest portion of Phrygia for her 
dower, upon Bajazet, the eldest son of the formid- 
able chief of the Ottomans. Hamid, prince of Pisi- 
dia, sold six cities for the privilege of preserving 
the small remainder of his dominions, and the emir 
of Caramania, defeated near Iconium, was compelled 
to pay tribute. 

Whilst the emperor obtained pardon from Amurat 
by the basest submission, Andronicus, the eldest of 
his four sons, indignant because the direction of 
affairs had been taken from him and confided to 
Manuel, sought an opportunity for revenge. He 
found in Saoudji, the son of Amurat, who had tem- 
porary command of the Ottoman forces in Europe, 
a conformity of sentiments and character which 
soon united them in the closest friendship. Con- 
sumed by an ardent ambition, equally animated by 
a fierce hatred against their parents, these two 
princes conspired to seize the crown, and swore to 
be inviolably faithful to each other if they succeeded 
in their design. Upon receiving news of this in- 
famous plot, Amurat summoned the unfortunate 
emperor before him, to render ai,, account of the 
conduct of Andronicus. John Palseologus humbled 
himself, and in order to remove all suspicion of 
complicity with his son, he accepted the proposition 
made by his ally to march against the rebels, to 



56 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

make them prisoners and punish them for their 
revolt by the deprivation of sight. Amurat hastily 
crossed over into Europe, and overtook the revolted 
princes not far from Apricidion. He advanced on 
horseback during the night to their camp, and 
ordered them to surrender if they wished to obtain 
pardon. At the potent voice of their sovereign, the 
soldiers who had embraced the cause of Saoudji 
deserted in crowds, and implored the mercy of 
Amurat. The young prince, betrayed and aban- 
doned, took refuge in Didymotica, with a small 
number of companions and the sons of those Greek 
nobles who remained faithful to him in his fallen 
fortunes. The father pursued him and beseiged the 
city. Famine forced the garrison to surrender, and 
Amurat exasperated by the obstinate resistance of 
Saoudji, ordered the executioners to put out his 
eyes first, and then to behead him. As to the 
Greek nobles, he commanded them to be tied to- 
gether two and two and precipitated from the ram- 
parts into the waters of the Maritza. From his 
camp he witnessed calmly this horrible execution. 

Having satisfied his atrocious severity, Amurat 
sent an order to John Palseologus to punish his son 
in the same manner as he had punished Saoudji. 
The Greek obeyed. Andronicus, condemned to lose 
his sight by the injection of boiling vinegar into 
the eyes, escaped the full rigor of the punishment 
through the want of skill on the part of the execu- 
tioner. Satisfied with the submission of the em- 
peror in executing his orders, Amurat cared not to 
inquire if the accomplice of Saoudji had been totally 
deprived of sight. John Palseologus imprisoned the 



THB I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTnjM. 57 

prince in the tower of Anemas with his w 7 ife and 
infant son, and designated Manuel as his successor, 
in place of his elder brother. 

Manuel had fixed his residence at Thessalonica, 
of w T hich city he was governor. Losing sight of the 
horrible catastrophe of Didyrnotica and the dan- 
gerous position of his father, who preserved his 
throne only by the most servile obedience, he con- 
ceived the project of taking from the Ottomans the 
important city of Pherae. Amurat, informed of this 
treachery, despatched one of his best generals, 
Kaireddin Pasha, beyond the Bosphorus, with 
orders to take Thessalonica and to bring back Mau- 
uel a prisoner. The ardor with which the Otto- 
mans, far outnumbering the Greeks, pressed the 
siege, terrified the inhabitants. Always ready to 
revolt, they arose against Manuel and threatened to 
throw open the gates of the city to the enemy, if he 
did not obtain aid from Constantinople. The prince 
made known his unfortunate position to his father ; 
the timid emperor returned for answer that he not 
only could afford him no aid, but that he dared not 
even receive him at his court for fear of incurring 
the anger of his dreaded ally. Deprived of all help, 
menaced on every side, Manuel escaped during the 
night upon a galley, and begged of the Genoese 
governor of Lesbos the asylum his father refused 
him in his palace. But there also the terror of the 
name of Amurat was so great that he was not per- 
mitted to land upon the island. He then formed 
the courageous resolution of going to Prusa, and 
throwing himself upon the mercy of the conqueror. 
This confidence of his enemy appeased the anger oi 



58 THE LAST CdBSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Amurat. He went out to meet him, mildly re- 
proached him for his guilty conduct, generously 
granted the pardon he solicited, and sent him to his 
father, to whom he recommended kindness towards 
the heir of his throne. Thessalonica soon fell into 
the hands of the Turks. 

The Greek empire declined daily; the Ottomans 
or their allies surrounded it on all sides; they al- 
ready possessed the Chersonesus; a part of Thessaly 
belonged to them; only a breath was needed to 
overthrow the throne of Constantine. Although in 
so lamentable a condition, the Greeks did not refrain 
from civil discords. The rebel Andronicus, being 
delivered from his prison by the Genoese, was aided 
by these new allies to attack the emperor. He 
forced his father to capitulate and to admit him into 
Constantinople, after having solemnly sworn that he 
would renounce his odious projects. But violating 
his oath he soon proceeded to greater excesses than 
before. Supported by his partisans he proclaimed 
himself emperor, and imprisoned his father and 
brothers in the very house from which he had es- 
caped. There they remained two years, when by 
the assistance of a friend they obtained their liberty 
and an asylum at Scutari. Andronicus, upon hear- 
ing this, pursued a course of conduct which filled 
the Greeks with astonishment; far from engaging 
in a sacrilegious war which might plunge the em- 
pire into the greatest disasters, he asked pardon of 
John Palseologus, declaring that he would no longer 
usurp the throne, and in proof of his sincerity he 
withdrew with all his family from Constantinople. 
The emperor, pacified by the submission of An- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 59 

dronicus, treated him kindly, and assigned him a 
small territory, whither he retired and lived tran- 
quilly. 

Whilst the empire was distracted by internal dis- 
cord, Amurat, who had subdued Macedonia and 
Albania after a struggle of four years, saw himself 
menaced by a new storm on the side of Servia. The 
despot of Servia, Boulks Lazarus, had risen in revolt 
and united the Valakians, the Hungarians, the Dal- 
matians and the Triballians in a confederation 
against the Ottomans. This formidable league did 
not disquiet Amurat ; he made his preparations for 
another expedition into Europe. But before taking 
the field, he sent to Lazarus a bag of millet as a 
sign of the countless troops he was directing against 
Servia ; the despot scattered the grass to the fowl in 
the poultry-yard in presence of the ambassadors ; 
then, addressing them, he said: "You see how 
quickly the fowl have devoured the millet; say to 
your master that his troops, however numerous 
they may be, shall, in like manner, be devoured by 
the Servians." He kept his word. An army of 
twenty thousand Ottomans was attacked by the 
combined forces of the allies, and totally routed. 
Amurat now took the command himself (1389) ; he 
deprived Sisman, King of Bulgaria, whose daughter 
he had married, of his states, and overtook the 
Servians at Cassova, on the frontiers of Bosnia and 
Servia. 

Amurat passed a part of the night in delibera- 
tion with his most experienced generals and his 
two sons, Bajazet and Yacoub. He had confided 
the command of the right wing of the arm}^ to the 



60 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

former, and of the left to the latter. In the morn- 
ing he gave the signal to advance. The shock of 
the opposing forces was terrible. The rage which 
animated both armies was so great that victory for 
a long time hung in the balance. The left wing of 
the Ottomans began to give way, when Bajazet 
hastened to their aid, opening a wide path for him- 
self with his formidable club. In spite of their 
prodigies of valor, the Christians were defeated ; a 
large number of their chiefs fell on the field of battle ; 
Lazarus, overpowered by numbers, was made pris- 
oner, with the greater part of the Servian nobles. 
After this victory, which annihilated the league 
and the independence of the Sclavonian tribes, 
Amurat went to visit the scene of carnage and rec- 
ognize the dead. "How strange," he said to his 
Grand Vizir, Ali Pasha, ' ' among all these dead I 
see only young men ! " " To this we owe the vic- 
tory," replied the vizir, "the rashness of youth 
listens only to the ardor which animates, and they 
die at our feet ; men of mature age would not have 
ventured to oppose the invincible Ottomans." "It 
is the more surprising to me," continued Amurat, 
' ' that the event of the battle has been in our favor, 
and I am agreeably disappointed, for I dreamed 
last night that I was pierced through the body by 
the enemy." As he pronounced these words, a Tri- 
ballian soldier sprang from amid the heap of dead 
bodies, plunged his dagger in his breast, and re- 
venged the defeat of the Christians by the murder 
of the conqueror. The guards fell upon the soldier 
and killed him upon the spot. Amurat was borne 
to his tent, and died in pronouncing sentence of 



THK LAST OflSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 6l 

death against Lazarus and other Servian nobles. 
His remains were transported to Prusa, and de- 
posited in the mosque constructed by his order. 

This prince possessed some fine qualities. Not- 
withstanding the cruelty he exhibited in the execu- 
tion of Saoudji and of the insurgents at Didymotica, 
his rare energy and superior intellectual powers 
cannot be denied. His love of justice and his sim- 
ple tastes endeared him to his subjects. 

The reign of Bajazet, the eldest son and successor 
of Amurat, was ushered in by a fratricide. In 
presence of the corpse of his father, he ordered the 
execution of the unfortunate Yacoub, who, having 
by his valor conciliated the affection of the army, 
had become an object of suspicion to him. Bajazet, 
surnamed Ilderim ( lightning) by the Turks on ac- 
count of the rapidity of his devastating incursions, 
perhaps surpassed Amurat himself, and certainly 
inspired more terror in the Christian world. He 
continued the war which his father had undertaken 
against Servia, compelled Stephen, the son of Laza- 
rus, to swear fealty to him, and concluded a treaty 
with this prince by which the latter pledged him- 
self to furnish a contingent in all the wars of the 
Ottomans, to give him his sister in marriage, and 
to pay an annual tribute. He next turned his at- 
tention to the humiliation of the Greeks. Having 
determined to obtain possession of Philadelphia, the 
only city remaining to them in Asia, he demanded 
aid from his new allies, the prince of Servia and 
the emperor of Constantinople. The governor of 
the place refusing to surrender to a barbarian and 
to accept a Turkish judge, John Palaeologus and 



62 THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Manuel were foremost in the attack upon their own 
city, and helped to deliver it up to Bajazet. 

After subduing the emirs of Aidin, Saroukan, 
Kermian, and Casamania, and organizing the gov- 
ernment of the conquered provinces, the sovereign 
of the Ottomans recrossed the Bosphorus in order to 
direct his forces against the princes of Europe. His 
first care was to fortify the city of Gallipoli and im- 
prove the harbor, after which he turned his steps 
towards the Archipelago. That the Greek emperor 
might be the witness of his new triumphs, he sum- 
moned him the first among his vassals to furnish 
his contingent. Manuel hastened as an humble 
vassal to the Ottoman court, at the head of a hun- 
dred men. Bajazet forbade the exportation of grain 
from Asia to the islands of Lesbos, Rhodes and 
Chios. A fleet of sixty large vessels sent against 
Chios reduced to ashes its cities and villages, devas- 
tated the other islands of the Archipelago, Euboea 
and a part of Attica. 

John Pabeologus, alarmed by the insolent man- 
ner in which Bajazet exercised his tyranny, medi- 
tated when too late upon the means of fortifying his 
capital. As he was destitute of materials, three of 
the most beautiful churches of Constantinople were 
demolished by his orders; the church founded by 
Leo the Philosopher, in honor of All the Saints, that 
of the Forty Martyrs, a monument of the piety oi 
the emperor Marcian, and that of Saint Mocdus, 
erected under Constantine the Great. It was with 
the enormous blocks of marble taken from these 
temples that he raised near the Golden .Gate two 
lofty towers, afterwards dismantled by his own 



THB LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 63 

order, where in case of necessity he hoped to find a 
secure asylum. Informed of these preparations, 
Bajazet wrote to the emperor and expressed his will 
in the following terms : ' ' You will without delay 
raze the newly-erected fortifications, or }^our son 
Manuel, having had his eyes put out, will return 
to you blind." John Palaeologus, terrified by the 
danger which menaced the heir of his throne, 
obeyed the order; but the grief he felt at so cruel a 
humiliation, united to the sufferings of a violent 
attack of gout, caused his death shortly afterwards 
(1391). He was sixty-one years of age, weak, indo- 
lent and effeminate; he had not the energy for 
those great crimes which make men tyrants, nor 
for the great virtues which make good princes. 



CHAPTER III. 

BAJAZET AND TAMEKXANE. 

Manuel ascends the throne of Constantinople — Bajazet crosses into 
Europe — He ravages the empire, and menaces the capital — Crusade 
of Nicopolis — Defeat of the Christian army — Irruption of the Otto- 
mans into Greece — Manuel divides the empire with his nephew — 
Expedition of Marshal Boucicaut — Manuel seeks aid from the kings 
of the West— His entry into Paris — He goes to England— His return 
to France — Inactivity of Bajazet— The approach of Tamerlane saves 
Constantinople — Expeditions of Tamerlane — Embassy from Tamer- 
lane to Bajazet — The Sultan summons Manuel to surrender his cap- 
ital — Siege and capture of Sebaste by the Moguls— Bajazet 'returns 
to Asia — Sack of Aleppo and Damascus — Destruction of Bagdad — 
Battle of Angora — Defeat and captivity of Bajazet — Efforts of his son 
ahomet to liberate him — Death of Bajazet — Return of Tamerlane 
to Samarcand— He dies on his march to China. 

The ruin of the empire was accelerated under 
Manuel, an enlightened statesman but an inefficient 
soldier, who succeeded John Palseologus at a mo- 
ment when a hero was needed to uphold the totter- 
ing throne of the Caesars. At the death of his 
father, Manuel was with Bajazet at Prusa, and not 
daring openly to claim his inheritance, he left the 
city secretly and returned to Constantinople. He 
was there acknowledged as emperor, and he cele- 
brated the obsequies of his predecessor with the 
usual magnificence. Upon learning the escape of 
the Greek prince, the anger of Bajazet knew no 
bounds, and its first fury was vented upon the 
guards to whom he had been confided. But after- 
wards preferring to spare the life of the fugitive, 
that he might exact from him the most humiliating 

(6 4 ) 



THE I. AST C.ESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 65 

obedience, he dispatched one of his officers to bear 
him the following message: "In future a Mussul- 
man cadi shall reside at Constantinople ; for it is not 
proper that the true believers, when called to that 
city by business affairs, should be deprived of their 
own judges. Such is my will ; if you refuse to obey 
me, remain within the precincts of your capital; all 
beyond it is mine." 

The imperious Mussulman, considering the am- 
biguous answer of Manuel as equivalent to a refusal, 
passed from Bithynia into Thrace, devastated all the 
villages from Panidos to the very walls of Constanti- 
nople, and transported thence all the inhabitants 
into Asia. He next took Thessalonica and the 
places in its vicinity. From that moment in reality 
commenced the first siege or rather the first block- 
ade of the capital of the Greek empire — a blockade 
which was to last five years. He left before its walls 
a body of troops, with directions to allow the Greeks 
no repose, but to harass them day and night. The 
rest of the army he divided into two corps, one of 
which entered Peloponnesus for the purpose of devas- 
ating Achaia and Lacedemon, and the other spread 
ruin throughout Roumania. 

Peloponnesus was at that time governed by Theo- 
dore Palseologus, brother of the new emperor. This 
prince was distinguished b}^ all the qualities which 
win for sovereigns the affection of their subjects. 
After restoring peace to his states, he devoted him- 
self to the task of repairing the evils of war. Fame 
soon proclaimed his virtues and the mildness of his 
sway. Foreigners left their own country to go and 
settle in Peloponnesus, which had assumed a new 
5 



66 THE IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

aspect. Cities which had been abandoned were now 
populous and flourishing ; desert fields were culti- 
vated and yielded abundant harvests ; forests which 
had served as retreats for brigands were cut down, 
and the land devoted to agriculture. In a word, 
nearly ten thousand Illyrians, driven from their own 
country by fear of the Turks, had found a home in 
Peloponnesus with their wives, children and flocks, 
and had beccgne the faithful subjects of Theodore. 
With their aid he dispossessed the Turks of several 
important places, finally expelled them from his 
states, and gained a signal victory over a hostile 
prince of Achaia. To complete his happiness, 
Theodore obtained the hand of a daughter of the 
Duke of Athens, receiving with her as her dower 
the city of Corinth, one of the keys of the Peloponne- 
sus. But these tranquil days were not of long dura- 
tion ; they did not escape the ascendency which the 
Turks regained in this country and in all the pro- 
vinces of the empire. 

Very soon there were neither reapers at Constan- 
tinople to mow the grain nor millers to grind the 
little they could purchase. To crush the city the 
tyrant did not overthrow the walls, nor batter them 
with powerful machines ; but his soldiers dispersed 
in the environs exercised a constant vigilance, and 
guarded every outlet that nothing might be intro- 
duced or sent out of the capital, so that the want of 
grain, wine and oil was daily more seriousty felt. 
Wood also was needed to cook the food, and they 
were obliged, in order to obtain it, to tear down their 
houses. Incapable of resisting the Ottoman power, 
Manuel wrote to the Pope, the Emperor of Germany, 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 67 

and the Kings of France and Hungary ; he informed 
them of the power, ambition and successes of Baja- 
zet, of the extremity to which Constantinople was 
reduced, and of the peril which threatened Europe 
should the progress of this terrible conqueror remain 
unchecked. He warned them that should they per- 
mit the wreck of the Greek empire to fall under the 
blows of the Mussulmans, the barbarians, having 
once broken down the barrier which obstructed 
their advance, would pour into the West and mark 
their path by blood and carnage. 

In the meantime, Sisman, the Prince of Bulgaria, 
who had been deprived of his states, a part before, 
and a part after the battle of Cassova, despairing of 
prolonging the defence of Nicopolis, surrendered 
himself with his son in the camp of Ali Pasha, 
whither they went with a shroud cast around their 
neck to implore their lives. Sisman was sent as a 
prisoner to Philippopolis, and afterwards put to 
death. His son escaped punishment by embracing 
Islamism, and received in recompense of his apos- 
tasy the government of Amisus, a city of Asia 
recently subjugated. Alarmed by the expeditions 
of Bajazet, Sigismund, King of Hungary, sent am- 
bassadors to demand an explanation of the con- 
quests made so near his provinces. The Ottoman 
chief received the deputation in a hall adorned with 
Bulgarian arms and trophies, and he deigned no 
other answer than to point to the bows and arrows 
suspended against the walls, as a proof of his right 
to the possession of Bulgaria (1394). The same 
year, Bajazet, proud of his success, dropped the 
title of Emir and assumed that of Sultan. 



68 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Persuaded that war with Bajazet was inevitable, 
Sigisrnund endeavored to strengthen himself by so- 
liciting an alliance with Charles VI., King of 
France. Having completed his preparations, he 
crossed the Danube and commenced operations by 
the siege of the little Nicopolis, which he took, not- 
withstanding the obstinate resistance of the garri- 
son. However, the cause of Sigisrnund, the son 
and brother of emperors of the East, concerned the 
Church and Europe. At the first news of his dan- 
ger, a crowd of adventurers from Italy, the bravest 
French and German knights, took up arms to op- 
pose the common enemy of the Christian name. 
Early in the spring, Charles VI. sent to this new 
crusade about eight thousand mercenary troops and 
a body of a thousand knights. These various bands 
were under the nominal command of the Count of 
Nevers, afterwards known as John the Fearless, in- 
trepid son of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. 
This prince, only twenty-two years of age, and 
without experience of war, was under the direction 
of the Count d' Eu, Constable of France, who was 
to command the army in the name of the young 
captain. The most illustrious persons were eager 
to share in the glory of the holy war. Among the 
nobles of high rank were the Counts de Bar and de 
la Marche, cousins of the King, Philip of Artois, the 
Admiral John de Vienne, the Sire de Coucy, Mar- 
shal Boucicaut, the Sire de Saimpy, Guy de Tre- 
mouille and the Eord de Saint Pol. On their pass- 
age through Germany these French noblemen were 
joined by Philibert de Naillac, grand master of St. 
John; Frederic of Hohenzollern, grand prior of the 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 69 

Teutonic knights, and the Bavarian Schilterberg, 
the historian of the expedition. Valakian troops, 
under the command of their Prince, Myrtsche, 
helped to swell the army of the King of Hungary. 

The auxiliaries having traversed Bavaria and 
Austria, joined Sigismund at Buda. At the sight 
of so many brave warriors, the king, assured of suc- 
cess, exclaimed : "Why should we fear the Turks? 
Should the heaven fall, we have lances enough to 
bear it up." The Christian army, sixty thousand 
strong, crossed the Danube, entered Bulgaria, took 
several cities, massacred the inhabitants without 
showing mercy to any, and laid siege to Nicopolis, 
an important city defended by a valiant garrison, to 
which Bajazet could soon send aid. After useless 
efforts to take it by assault, the besiegers, w T ho were 
not provided with cannon, determined to reduce it 
by famine. Full of confidence in the superiority of 
their numbers, the allies indulged in every kind of 
pleasure, and spoke of the Sultan only in terms of 
contempt. They doubted that he would have the 
courage to cross the Bosphorus and attack them. 
But at the very moment they w T ere abandoning 
themselves to a false security, the enemy was ap- 
proaching. 

Whilst the chief of the garrison of Nicopolis held 
the Christian army at bay under the walls of Nico- 
polis by a heroic defense, Bajazet had made his 
plans. A rapid march, skilfully concealed from 
the knowledge of the allies, brought his army 
within a short distance of their camp, in which there 
was neither discipline nor order. Warned of the 
approach of the enemy by some marauders who had 



70 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

been put to flight by the Turks, they raised the 
siege, and had the imprudent barbarity to massacre 
all the prisoners whom they held on parole. As 
soon as the Arabs, the vanguard of the enemy, cov- 
ered the plain, the impetuous Count of Nevers de- 
manded for the French cavalry the post of honor in 
the combat. King Sigismund, who had learned by 
sad experience the manner of fighting the Turks, 
begged the crusaders to place his Hungarians in the 
front, and thus oppose light-armed troops to light- 
armed, and reserve the flower of the army to meet 
the attack of the Janizaries and Spahis. But the 
French cavaliers would not, for a moment, entertain 
the proposition, declaring that they w T ould never 
give way to the Hungarian infantry ; and they 
rushed headlong to the contest (226. September, 
1396). The Turkish infantry was shattered by the 
impetuous onslaught of the Count of Nevers and his 
valiant companions. Even the Janizaries were un- 
able to resist this band of warriors. Ten thousand 
of their number had fallen on the field, and the re- 
mainder were retreating to the rear of the Spahis, 
when the French precipitated themselves upon this 
second corps and routed them. Urged on by their 
impetuous valor and no longer listening to the dic- 
tates of prudence, they pursued the fugitives with- 
out observing any order, until they reached the 
summit of a hill. What was their consternation 
when they saw themselves confronted by forty 
thousand of the elite of the troops of Bajazet ! To 
surprise succeeded a panic terror, and they fled in 
frightful disorder. The knights alone resisted, and 
fought with the courage of despair. Surrounded on 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 7 1 

all sides by the cavalry, who were animated by the 
presence of the Sultan, the greater part found a 
glorious death by the sword of the enemy. The 
Count of Nevers and twenty-four of the principal 
nobles were made prisoners by the Turks. 

The Hungarians had been drawn up in battle 
array at a very short distance behind the French. 
Stephen Lankovich commanded the left wing, and 
Prince Myrtsche the right wing, composed of Wal- 
lachians. No sooner did they behold the French 
retreating in disorder before the Ottomans, than 
both wings fled disgracefully, notwithstanding all 
the efforts of Sigismund to rally them. The Bava- 
rians and Styrians bore the brunt of the battle. Be- 
ing reinforced by some of the fugitive French, they 
rushed upon the troops of the Sultan and restored 
the battle. They had already driven back the Jani- 
zaries, and spread terror throughout the ranks of the 
Spahis, when the arrival of the Prince of Servia, 
ally of Bajazet, with a body of five thousand men, 
decided the victory, w r hich had been held in the 
balance by their prodigies of valor. The largest 
number fell in defending the standard of Sigismund. 
The king himself, forced from the spot by the Arch- 
bishop of Grau and Stephen of Kanischa, his 
brother, reluctantly left the field of battle strewn 
with bodies of the Styrian and Bavarian knights ; 
accompanied by a few brave companions, he cast 
himself into a small boat and rowed to the allied 
fleet of Venice and Rhodes, which was anchored at 
the mouth of the Danube. Thence he went to Con- 
stantinople, and by a circuitous route returned to 
his exhausted states. 



72 THK LAST CiSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Bajazet, victorious over the confederate army, en- 
camped before Nicopolis, and the following day 
visited the field where the intrepid soldiers had so 
bravely contended w r ith him. At the sight of the 
multitude of dead bodies of the Turks which strewed 
the plain, the number of which is estimated by some 
historians to have been over sixty thousand, he 
shed tears of rage, and swore to avenge in Christian 
blood the Mussulman warriors w 7 ho had fallen under 
the sword of the enemy. He, consequently, ordered 
all the prisoners to be brought before him the fol- 
lowing day. More than ten thousand were dragged 
into his presence, with ropes around their necks and 
their hands tied behind their backs. He consented 
to spare the Count of Nevers and twenty-four of the 
principal lords, among whom were the Count de la 
Marche, the Constable d'Eu, the Marshal Boucicaut, 
the Sires de Coucy, and Guy de Tremouille, expect- 
ing to obtain for them a heavy ransom ; but he 
obliged them to witness the horrible expiation he 
had determined to exact in honor of the memory of 
his faithful Ottomans. The savage Sultan ordered 
a general massacre. Some of the unfortunate pris- 
oners were beheaded, others beaten to death with 
clubs. The carnage continued without interruption 
from sunrise until four o'clock in the afternoon. It 
ceased then only at the supplication of the nobles of 
the empire, who, overcome by the frightful spectacle, 
threw themselves on their knees before Bajazet, and 
implored his mercy. The tyrant's thirst for ven- 
geance was momentarily appeased by the blood of 
so many Christians, and he allowed the remainder 
to remain in the hands of those who had made them 



THE LAST CzESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 73 

prisoners. The Count de Nevers and his twenty- 
four companions were loaded with chains and sent 
to the tower of Gallipoli. 

The King of France and other princes united w r ith 
Sigismund to send rich presents to the Sultan, in 
order to hasten the liberation of the French cavaliers. 
After the delay rendered necessary by the distance, 
Bajazet accepted two hundred thousand ducats for 
the ransom of the heir of Burgundy and the barons 
who were still alive. When the ransom, the amount 
of which had been doubled by incidental expenses, 
was paid, the Sultan restored to liberty^ the Count de 
Nevers, saying to him: " I free you from your oath 
never to bear arms against me; I conjure you, on the 
contrary, to resume them as soon as possible, and 
to bring hither all the forces of Christendom. You 
cannot do me a greater favor than to give me an- 
other opportunity of acquiring glory." Before the 
departure of the foreign captives, Bajazet received 
them at his Court, and entertained them w 7 ith a fal- 
con hunt. He astonished them by the magnifi- 
cence of his suite, which was composed of seven 
thousand falconers and six thousand men serving 
his dogs. 

The defeat of the Christians before the w 7 alls of 
Nicopolis was followed by an incursion of the Turks 
into the countries situated between the Save and 
the Drave. They devastated the fields of the an- 
cient Sismium, but learning from his late victory 
not to attack the Europeans without sufficient prep- 
aration, Bajazet turned his arms against the Greeks, 
on whose territories his triumphs had been obtained 
without difficulty, and w T hom God seemed to aban- 



74 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

don to his revenge. He summoned the Emperor to 
appear before him, to perform his duties as a vassal. 
Furious at a refusal, which he did not anticipate, he 
ordered his vizir to resume the siege of Constanti- 
nople, which had been interrupted by the expedi- 
tion of the King of Hungary and his allies. Not 
satisfied with attacking the metropolis of the Chris- 
tians of the East, he directed Timour-Tasch to ex- 
tend the frontiers of the Ottoman empire to the 
north and east of Asia. Whilst this skillful lieu- 
tenant planted his victorious standard on the banks 
of the Euphrates, the Sultan, at the head of fifty- 
six thousand Mussulmans, fell like a thunderbolt 
upon Greece, subjugated, without opposition, the 
principal cities of Thessaly, penetrated through the 
pass of Thermopylae, conquered Phocis, and left to 
two of his generals the acquisition of Peloponnesus 

(1367). 

Obedient to the instructions of their barbarian 

sovereign, these two generals devastated the en- 
virons of Modon and Coron, and spared not the 
Greeks. The Prince of Sparta, Theodore Palseolo- 
gus, animated by the most generous sentiments, 
sacrificed himself for the good of Christendom, and 
ceded his city to Philibert de Naillac, grand master 
of the Knights of Rhodes. The inhabitants, who 
found it impossible to divest themselves of their 
hatred against the West, opposed in the most violent 
manner the designs of Theodore. When the knights 
arrived to take possession of the cit}^, these degen- 
erate Spartans attacked them with stones and 
clubs, and desisted only at the command of their 
bishop. They clung to their name of Greek, and 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 75 

preferred death under this name to life under the 
protection of the Latins. In the meantime, the 
Mussulmans occupied Argos, plundered it and trans- 
ported into Asia thirty thousand of its inhabitants, 
supplying their place by a colony of Ottomans. 

Reduced to the last extremity, and shut up within 
his capital, the emperor was destitute of means to 
hire troops to defend it. The great prince of Mos- 
cow, Vassali, learning the deplorable condition of 
the emperor, sent him a large sum of money by the 
monk Osliebia, and induced all the Russian princes 
to follow his example. These presents were re- 
ceived at Constantinople with transports of joy and 
gratitude by the emperor, the Patriarch, and the 
people. 

Andronicus the elder, brother of Manuel, who 
had been deprived of sight by the barbarous Amurat, 
and who had abdicated after usurping the crown, 
left at his death in the service of the Turks a son 
named John Selymbia. To create additional diffi- 
culties for Manuel, the Sultan pretended to consider 
this prince as the legitimate sovereign of Constanti- 
nople, and urged him to assert his rights to the 
throne. He had no doubt of the readiness of his 
protege to do his bidding, and if we may rely upon 
the assertions of the historian Ducas, he had forced 
from him the promise to cede Constantinople in ex- 
change for the Morea. He even sent to the emperor 
a message couched in these terms : ' ' Resign the 
crown to the rightful heir, from whom you have 
usurped it, and I will immediately lay down my 
arms and grant peace to the city. ' ' Struggling with 
the misery which pervaded his capital, with the de- 



76 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

mands of Bajazet, and the clamors of the friends of 
John, who reproached him with ruining the empire 
by his ambition and establishing his own domina- 
tion by the destruction of his country, Manuel pru- 
dently resolved to share the throne with his nephew. 
Accordingly he received him in his palace, and pro- 
mised the sultan to present himself at the Porte 
whenever his services should be required (1399). 

While such was the sad state of affairs in the 
East, Charles VI., King of France, had obstinately 
refused the petition of his brother, the Duke of Or- 
leans, to confide to him the command of a new cru- 
sade. He was, however, persuaded to send six 
hundred men-at-arms and eight hundred regular 
troops under the brave Boucicaut to the shores of 
the Bosphorus. 

The Marshal had great difficulty in penetrating 
to Constantinople. When he undertook to cross the 
Hellespont, his little fleet was opposed by seventeen 
well-armed Mussulman galleys, which were waiting 
at Gallipoli to intercept his passage. Notwithstand- 
ing the inferiority of his forces, Boucicaut repulsed 
the assailants, put them to flight, arrived in a few 
days before Galata, and by relieving that city saved 
Constantinople. The Greeks welcomed him as a 
guardian angel, loaded him with honors, and ap- 
pointed him Grand Constable of the Greek empire. 

The arrival of the Marshal, whose zeal was in- 
creased by the remembrance of his captivity and the 
desire of revenge, compelled Bajazet to raise the 
siege of Constantinople. Boucicaut' s attacks upon 
several fortresses of Europe and Asia were crowned 
with success, but he failed in taking Nicomedia. 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 



// 



The Ottomans, who had at first retreated to some 
distance, soon reappeared in greater numbers. Hav- 
ing remained a year, the Marshal determined to 
abandon a country where he could no longer protect 
his troops, and in which the5^ were unable to obtain 
a sufficient support. He induced Manuel to accom- 
pany him to France, where he promised that he 
would himself beg both men and money to aid his 
cause, assuring him that his presence would rouse 
the knights of the West and awaken their piety to 
engage in a crusade. The emperor, trusting to these 
assurances, confided the government of the empire 
to his nephew, and embarked for Peloponnesus. 
His brother Theodore, Despot of Lacedemon, strongly- 
disapproved of his design, predicting that his jour- 
ney would be as fruitless as the one which had been 
formerly undertaken for the same purpose. He 
represented the imprudence of which he was guilty 
in placing the government of the empire in the 
hands of a young prince without experience, and 
whose interests were opposed to his own. 

Manuel was not moved by the wise remonstrances 
of his brother. Having left his wife and two young 
children, John and Theodore, at Modon, he set out 
for Italy. Instead of praising the success of his 
vassal, thus become master of Constantinople, the 
sultan hastened to recall him to a sense of his duty, 
and in accordance w T ith the wish of his suzerain, 
John Palaeologus allowed a mosque to be built in 
the city, instituted a court of justice, and appointed 
a cadi to decide in their own language upon cases in 
which Mussulmen were concerned. 

No beneficial results attended the journey of Man- 



78 THK I,AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

uel through the States of the West. This prince 
did not comprehend the age ; Europe was no longer 
in the times of Godfrey de Bouillon and St. Bernard, 
nor even of Louis IX. Other interests had obtained 
the ascendency over the interests of religion,, and 
Catholic Europe was about to abandon to the Otto- 
man power the empire of the degenerate Greeks. 
The heir of the Caesars was received at Venice, 
Genoa and Florence with extraordinary magnifi- 
cence, but his petitions for aid were unheeded. 
From Venice he went to Padua and Pavia. The 
Duke of Milan, John Galeas, furnished him with 
money, horses and guides to enable him to appear 
with becoming dignity at the court of France, where 
he was expected. He even protested that he was 
willing to march in person to the relief of Constan- 
tinople, if the other princes would unite with him 
in the expedition. 

Charles VI., who considered the sojourn of a 
Greek emperor in his states as a glorious event of 
his reign, had given orders that he should be re- 
ceived with all the honors due his rank. As soon 
as the guest, so impatiently desired, touched the 
soil of France, the officers of the king met him, and 
from that time defrayed all expenses. In every city 
through which he passed the people thronged the 
way and filled the air with their joyous acclama- 
tions. A cavalcade composed of two thousand of 
the wealthiest citizens of Paris went as far as Char- 
enton to escort him thence to the city. At the gates 
of the capital, he was welcomed by the Chancellor, 
the Parliament and three Cardinals. Following 
them appeared Charles VI., accompanied by the 



THE IvAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 79 

princes of the blood and a numerous retinue of 
dukes, counts and courtiers, magnificently attired. 
The successor of Constantine was presented with a 
superb white horse and clothed in a mantle of white 
silk. Although not tall, Manuel was graceful and 
dignified. His expression of countenance was very 
agreeable ; the long beard which covered his chin 
and the white hair which fell upon his shoulders, 
inspired interest and respect. The party proceeded 
to the royal palace, where a sumptuous banquet had 
been prepared. 

Manuel was lodged at the Louvre ; Charles VI. 
assigned him from his own treasures a sum sufficient 
to maintain a state befitting the imperial dignity. 
This monarch lost no opportunity to impress the 
Greeks with a high idea of his wealth and power. 
Balls and entertainments succeeded each other 
daily, and the French endeavored, by varying the 
pleasures of the hunt and the table, to divert the 
attention of their illustrious guest from his sorrows. 
They granted him a private chapel for his use, and 
the Parisians remarked with surprise the language, 
ceremonies and vestments of the Greek clergy. The 
emperor was not long in perceiving that he had 
nothing to expect from France. The unfortunate 
Charles VI. enjoyed the use of reason only for short 
intervals, and when he relapsed into a state of mad- 
ness, his brother, the Duke of Orleans, and his uncle, 
Philip the Bold, were contending for the reins of 
government. This disastrous rivalry shortly broke 
out into civil war. The former, young and impetu- 
ous, of graceful and attractive manners, and agreea- 
ble in conversation, gave himself up to every kind 



80 THK IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

of pleasure. The latter, the father of the Count de 
Nevers, strove to maintain a decided superiority 
over all the princes of the blood. Extensive do- 
mains, military reputation, talents, wealth, all 
seemed combined to add to the glory of the House 
of Burgundy. The intrepid John de Nevers was 
eager to efface the disgrace of Nicopohs by under- 
taking another expedition ; but his father, profiting 
by the experience of the former fruitless attempt, 
refused to furnish the necessary means. 

A few months after his arrival in Paris, the em- 
peror determined to go to England to solicit aid, as 
Charles VI. was at that time afflicted with an attack 
of insanity. At Canterbury he was welcomed with 
great honor by the monks of St. Augustine. King 
Henry IV., accompanied b}^ a numerous suite and 
many of the nobles, received the Greek monarch at 
Blackheath, and entertained him several days in his 
capital. But England was even less disposed than 
France to enter upon a war against the infidels. 
That very year the legitimate sovereign, Richard 
II., had been dethroned and put to death by the 
ambitious usurper, Henry of Lancaster. A prey to 
anxiety and remorse, Henry dared not weaken his 
forces by a foreign expedition, when his own sub- 
jects were actually disposed to revolt. He, there- 
fore, limited his sympathy to expressions of com- 
passion for the Greek emperor, and to bestowing 
upon him rich presents. 

In the month of February of the following year, 
Manuel returned to France, as the king was restored 
to health. As to Bajazet, he had no fear of the im- 
perial beggar who was striving to raise up enemies 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 8 1 

against him among the Christian princes, and seek- 
ing by foreign hands to arrest the downfall of his 
empire. He had planted Islamism in the heart of 
Constantinople ; the iman prayed in his mosque, the 
cadi presided over his tribunal. The sultan at this 
time resided at Brusa (Prusa), the seat of his tyran- 
nical rule. The tree of his fortune, elevating its 
trunk and spreading out its branches, afforded him 
daily an abundance of the most delicious fruits to 
contribute to his pleasures. No enjoyment was 
wanting to him : animals of wonderful forms, pre- 
cious metals — in a word, all that God has created to 
gratify the sight, were found in his palace. The 
Greeks, Wallachians, Albanians, Hungarians, Sax- 
ons, Bulgarians and L,atins vied with each other in 
presenting to him young captives, who at the given 
signal came into his presence to sing in their own 
native tongue. His slaves were the obedient minis- 
ters of his will. Thus Bajazet was giving himself 
up to the pleasures of his court at Brusa, awaiting 
the favorable moment to crush entirely the wreck 
of the Greek empire, when his life of ease was inter- 
rupted and his pride alarmed by an Eastern chief. 

The head of one of the tribes of the dismembered 
empire of Gengis-Khan, Timour, surnamed Lend, or 
the Lame, called by Western historians Tamerlane, 
being deprived of his inheritance in his infancy 
by an unjust conqueror, grew up in obscurity amid 
the forests of upper Asia. When he was strong 
enough to avenge his w r rongs, he placed himself at 
the head of a few wandering Tartars, whose num- 
bers gradually increased; he accustomed them to 
military exercises, and enriched them by pillage. 
6 



82 THE IvAST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Having gained a great victory before the walls of 
Samarcand, the ambitious Timour founded a princi- 
pality of which this city was the centre ; he was 
afterwards proclaimed Saheb-Keran (master of the 
world), in a couroultai or national diet (1370). In- 
vested with supreme authority, wearing a golden 
crown, he made a solemn oath in presence of his 
emirs kneeling around him, to combat all the princes 
of the earth. He spent one year in restoring order 
in Samarcand, and then departed on his career of 
conquest. 

Timour crossed the Sihoum (Oxus), invaded and 
subjugated Kashgar, destroyed the capital of Kha- 
rism, whose inhabitants he put to the sword, sub- 
dued the east coast of the Caspian Sea and a large 
portion of Persia. He established on his throne the 
fugitive prince, Toktamisch, who had sought refuge 
at his court. But after a reign of ten years, the 
new khan, forgetting his obligations to his powerful 
benefactor, revolted against him. Tamerlane en- 
tered his dominions, dispersed his numerous army, 
and compelled him to fly. Prudence and ambition 
recalled him from the pursuit of Toktamisch towards 
the south. He reduced the city of Azof to ashes, 
and condemned to death or slavery all the Christians 
who fell into his hands. He treated in like manner 
the cities of Astrachan and Serai. 

After an expedition of five years, the conqueror 
returned to Samarcand with an immense booty. He 
was met on the banks of the Oxus by the princesses 
of his household and the wives of his sons, who, ac- 
cording to the custom of the Tartars, poured over 
his head pieces of gold and precious stones, and 



THE IvAST CESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 83 

presented him with a thousand horses, richly capari- 
soned, and a thousand mules. He visited Kesh, 
the second capital of his empire, of which his ances- 
tors had been hereditary chiefs, and upon which he 
had bestowed the name of Temple of Science and 
Civilization. At Samarcand he gave his army time 
to recruit from the fatigues of war. But his vigor- 
ous old age could not long endure an inactive life, 
and the indomitable destroyer undertook the con- 
quest of Hindoostan, the distant definitive aim of all 
couquerors of the world. Unheeding the murmurs 
of his emirs, who were wearied of long continued 
war, the great khan put himself at the head of his 
innumerable squadrons. In vain the Scapouch took 
refuge in their mountains, situated between the 
Gihon and the Indus — they were subjugated or ex- 
terminated; snows, torrents, precipices, nothing 
could impede his rapid march (1398). Afghanistan 
was traversed in six mouths, the Indus crossed, and 
desolation and terror spread over the land. There 
had not yet been a heavy battle, and already the 
Tartar army held a hundred thousand prisoners. 
But these innocent victims might, by their numbers, 
prevent the success of the first engagement with the 
enemy; so they were slaughtered by Timour's order 
in the space of one hour. 

Having arrived before Delhi, a large and flourish- 
ing city, the residence of the Sultan Mahmoud, 
whose weakness was well known to him, he was 
unwilling to waste the time required for a siege. 
He, therefore, dexterously concealed the amount of 
his forces, enticed the sultan into the open field ; his 
army was accompanied by a hundred and twenty 



84 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

elephants. As soon as the Moguls had pat to 
flight these clumsy animals, the Indians disappeared 
without striking a blow. The savage invader made 
his triumphal entrance into the capital of Hindoo- 
stan, and disgraced the rejoicings of victory by 
ordering the sack of the city and a general mas- 
sacre. Nearly all the inhabitants, animated by the 
courage of despair, set fire to their own houses, and 
perished in the flames. At other places on their 
route, the devastating hordes renewed these scenes 
of desolation and carnage, burning the men alive 
and leading captive the women and children. 
Where they passed, nothing remained of the strong- 
est cities but a heap of ashes. The Ganges op- 
posed in vain its waves to the impetuosity of 
Timour. He pushed on to the scource of this river, 
exterminating everywhere, in honor of Mahomet, 
all the fire-worshippers, destroying their cities and 
inundating the ruins with human blood. He then 
marched along the frontiers of the wonderful vale 
of Cashmere, where the prince and a number of 
Indian chiefs went to prostrate themselves at his 
feet. Two years had sufficed to secure these con- 
quests, and the invincible Timour returned to Sam- 
arcand, where, to immortalize their successful ex- 
pedition, he erected a magnificent mosque by the 
labor of several thousand Indian and Persian work- 
men, whom he had forced to accompany him. 

The conquered people, however, did not wear the 
yoke patiently. Couriers inform the victor that 
Georgia, Bagdad and Diarbekir have risen in re- 
volt. He returns immediately, subdues the rebels, 
and leaves traces of his devastating march. Tamer- 



THK LAST CiESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 85 

lane is also animated by a zeal for proselytism; he 
puts to death by frightful tortures all who refuse to 
embrace the religion of the prophet. 

His ambition was not satiated by the con- 
quest of the States of Asia. After reposing seven 
months at Samarcand, he set out upon an expedi- 
tion to the West. His first blows were aimed against 
the Christians of Georgia, whose defences were their 
mountains, their fortresses, and the severe cold of 
the winter : but Tamerlane triumphed over every 
obstacle ; he forced the enemy from their mountain 
retreats, took Tiflis, the capital of the country, and 
other important places (1400). He was passing the 
summer in the beautiful plain of Karabagh, when 
the Seljonkian emirs, despoiled by Bajazet of Ana- 
tolia, took refuge in his camp and implored his pro- 
tection. Convinced that a mere remonstrance from 
him would prove efficacious, Tamerlane sent ambas- 
sadors to the haughty Ottoman, to carry the follow- 
ing message: "The great Tamerlane tells you by 
the mouth of his servants : You have no right to 
take what belongs to others, and to aggrandize 
yourself by acts of injustice. Be contented with 
that portion which God has permitted you to con- 
quer from the infidels ; but you must restore those 
provinces which, like a thief, }^ou have taken from 
other princes, and thus God will be propitious to 
you. If you refuse, I will avenge their wrongs." 

Indignant at this insolent message, Bajazet was 
about to punish the envoys of the great khan ; but 
he w r as persuaded to change his intention by prudent 
counsellors, who reminded him of the respect paid 
in the East to the character of an ambassador. He, 



86 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

however, cut off their beards, and sent them back 
with an insulting reply. " Go tell your master," he 
said, "that I am waiting for him, and let him come 
quickty." To prove to Tamerlane how completely 
he despised his menaces, he conducted his army 
into Armenia, took Erzendjan, and returned to 
Brusa. Then, as if to show that he also had the 
right to command slaves as a master, he summoned 
the nephew of Manuel to surrender his capital. " I 
elevated you to the throne of this city," wrote the 
sultan, " that I might add it to my empire; give it 
up, if you wish to preserve my friendship. I will 
bestow upon you any other province you may desire; 
if you refuse, I call God and the prophet to witness 
that I will spare no one, but exterminate all." The 
Byzantines, undisturbed by the menaces of a new 
siege, collected a large quantity of provisions, and, 
full of Christian confidence and noble pride, they 
answered the ambassador: "Say to your master 
that, weak as we are, we know no power to save us 
but God, who can give us strength, and who can 
humble the strongest of our enemies. Let the 
sultan do what he wills." The success of Tamer- 
lane prevented Bajazet from accomplishing his pur- 
pose, and retarded the fall of Constantinople. 

Upon receiving an account of the insult offered 
him in the person of his deputies, the great khan 
unfurled his banner and entered the Ottoman terri- 
tory the 22d August, 1400. His first attack was 
upon Sirvas, the ancient Sebaste, one of the strong- 
est and most populous cities of Asia. Art was united 
with nature to render it impregnable. Summoned 
in vain to open its gates, it was unable, notwith- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 87 

standing its advantages, to avoid the catastrophe 
prepared for it by the anger of the Tartar emperor. 
It was defended on three sides by a ditch filled with 
water; the assailants commenced digging at the 
distance of a mile on the west, in order, by an under- 
ground passage, to reach the foundations of the 
ramparts and undermine them without being dis- 
covered. After the work was completed, Tamerlane 
sent a second summons, which the inhabitants re- 
ceived with insults. Immediately a large portion 
of the walls crumbled with a loud noise, and the 
Moguls, penetrating the city, inflicted upon it all 
the horrors of pillage. Never had Tamerlane car- 
ried his ferocity to a greater extent. He caused a 
large pit to be excavated like a tomb, and ordered 
all the inhabitants who had survived the carnage to 
be cast into it, their bodies being first bent and their 
heads tied by ropes between their legs. Upon the 
top were placed planks, over which earth was 
thrown, that the unfortunate victims might die by a 
slow agony. One of the sons of Bajazet, Ertroghul, 
paid for his heroic resistance with his life. The 
conqueror ordered him to be executed. 

The horrible vengeance of Tamerlane and the 
death of his most valiant son, filled the Ottoman 
sultan with the deepest grief. Forced by this 
frightful news to withdraw from Constantinople and 
thus grant a momentary repose to Palaeologus, 
Bajazet crossed into Asia. But ere he had reached 
the eastern frontier of his empire, the Tartar wave 
had rolled far to the south, marking its path with 
desolation. The conqueror, satisfied with giving 
this first lesson to his new enemy, had returned to 



88 TH£ I, AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Syria to chastise the sultan of the Mameluks, the 
weak Pharega, whose father had defied him and 
arrested his ambassadors. Instead of defending 
themselves within the walls of their fortress, the 
Syrians, aided by an army from Egypt, advanced to 
meet the Tartars in the open field, and were crushed 
by the impetuous squadrons of Tamerlane. The 
conqueror pursued the fugitives into the city over 
heaps of dead, sacked it and massacred the inhabi- 
tants without regard to sex or age. Tamerlane 
remained two days in the citadel, that from its 
height he might contemplate the work of destruc- 
tion. Thence he went to the governor's palace and 
celebrated his victory by a magnificent banquet. 
Whilst the vast halls resounded with joyous shouts 
of the revellers, blood was flowing in the streets of 
Aleppo, and cries of terror mingled with the groans 
of the dying, filled the air. Before he departed a 
monument composed of the heads of the conquered 
was erected in his honor. 

The fall of Aleppo was followed in quick succes- 
sion by that of Hama, Hems, and other fortified 
towns of Syria. Tamerlane next occupied Balbeck, 
a populous city, which furnished his army with an 
ample supply of provisions, and thence he marched 
against Damascus. The inhabitants defended them- 
selves most valiantly, and the great khan, perceiv- 
ing that they could hold him in check for a long 
time, offered to raise the siege if they would redeem 
their city from pillage by the payment of a million 
pieces of gold. They consented to the conditions, 
relying upon his faith. But Tamerlane, one day ex- 
pressed to his counsellors his great indignation 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 89 

against the inhabitants because they had formerly 
ill-treated the prophets, particularly Ali and his son 
Hosein. The religious fervor of the conqueror for 
Ali and Hosein, against the descendants of the 
first partisans of Moawia and Yezid, had such in- 
fluence over the members of the council, and still 
more over the army, that notwithstanding the cap- 
itulation and the payment of the required ransom, 
they entered the city sword in hand, and in a few 
moments Damascus was in flames. Tamerlane dis- 
patched an emir with directions to save, if possible, 
the most ancient master-piece of Saracen architec- 
ture, the grand mosque of the Ommiades, but he 
found the metal which covered the roof flowing in 
molten streams. 

Obliged by the losses and fatigues of this cam- 
paign to renounce the conquest of Egypt and Pales- 
tine, the chief of the Moguls retraced his steps, de- 
livered Aleppo to the flames, crossed the Euphrates 
and besieged Bagdad, which w T as obstinately de- 
fended by its governor. He, however, obtained 
possession of it during the summer, exterminated 
all the inhabitants, and of this ancient capital of 
Islamism, once so flourishing, he spared only the 
mosques, the schools, and the convents; a pyramid 
of ninety thousand human heads arose above the 
ruins of Bagdad as a monument of the barbarity of 
the conqueror. 

The arrival of Tamerlane had restored the hope 
of life to the Greeks; the day of chastisement had 
come for Bajazet. Seeing that his remonstrances 
produced no effect, and irritated by the insulting 
messages of the sultan, the great khan entered Ana- 



90 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

tola a second time at the head of eight hundred 
thousand barbarians, and approached Angora, tak- 
ing at the same time all the precautions dictated by 
prudence. To meet this army, which the Byzan- 
tines compared to that of Xexes, Bajazet could 
bring only a hundred and twenty thousand Tartars 
and ten thousand Servians. He selected for his 
army a field through which ran a river, whence he 
might draw the water necessary for his troops. 
When, on the contrary, he saw Tamerlane encamped 
on a dry, arid plain, he affected a profound con- 
tempt for him, and ordered a general hunt for that 
and the two following days on the elevated plateaus 
of the environs. After this foolish excursion of 
three days, under a burning sun, in which five 
thousand of his soldiers perished from fatigue and 
thirst, he returned to his camp; he found it occu- 
pied by the Moguls. To increase his difficulties, 
the spring from which the water flowed had been 
so filled by the enemy that it was nearly dried up. 
The two great rulers of the East were now face to 
face ; but their chances of victory were by no means 
equal. In addition to superiority of numbers, two 
circumstances of good omen, according to the ideas 
of the time, presaged success to the arms of Tamer- 
lane: first, before his departure from his capital, a 
grandson had been born to him, and during the fes- 
tivities in honor of that event gold pieces and pearls 
had been poured over his head ; next, a fiery comet 
of extraordinary size had appeared in the heavens, 
and moving from the West to the East. Its bril- 
liancy was so great as to eclipse that of the stars ; 
its rays of uncommon length flamed like lances 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 9 1 

turned towards the East. For more than three 
months this meteor shone over the whole earth. 
The nations, from the Indus and the Ganges to the 
Rhine and the Tagus, were terrified. The Greeks 
considered it a prediction of bloody battles in the 
East; to the astrologers and Tamerlane's compan- 
ions in arms it announced certain victory to them in 
the regions of the West. 

This first check experienced by Bajazet did not 
diminish his confidence. His vizier, Ali Pasha, and 
his son, Ibrahim, advised him to avoid a pitched bat- 
tle, and to exhaust his enemy slowly by skirmishes 
in the mountains, defiles and woods ; but he rejected 
their prudent counsel. His army, discontented with 
his extreme severity, and being, moreover, badly 
paid, broke out into murmurs ; this was particularly 
the case with the auxiliaries. The parsimonious 
sultan was unwilling to open his own treasures, by 
which he might have appeased the troops and pur- 
chased a victory of which he felt secure without 
making the sacrifice. The obstinacy and blindness 
of Bajazet and the disaffection of the soldiery de- 
stroyed all the hopes of the generals of conquering 
the innumerable army of the Moguls. 

In a vast plain situated to the northeast of An- 
gora, on the very grouud where Pompey had for- 
merly defeated Mithridates, the Ottomans and 
Tartars were drawn up in battle array ; the former 
commanded by the sultan, the latter by the emperor. 
The different divisions were under the orders of 
princes, sons and grandsons of the two sovereigns, 
and of the most valiant generals of Europe and 
Asia. Tamerlane thus harangued his army : "In- 



92 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

vincible troops, wall of defence harder than diamond, 
you know the glorious exploits by which our ances- 
tors rendered themselves famous, not only in the 
East, our birthplace, but also in Europe and Africa 
— I may say throughout the universe. You are not 
ignorant of the celebrated expeditions of Xerxes and 
Artaxerxes against the Greeks, those gods and 
demigods, with whom the Turks can no more com- 
pare than grasshoppers with lions. It is not to 
awaken your courage that I recall these exploits, for 
the prey is already in our grasp; but to urge you 
not to let your enemies escape, to conduct them alive 
to your own country, to show them to our children, 
and to teach them never again to provoke our wrath. 
Let the two wings approach at each end, so as to 
form a circle inclosing the enemy in the centre." 
At six o'clock in the morning the two wings com- 
menced the movement as directed, and surrounded 
the plain. 

Seeing the soldiers of the great khan executing 
this evolution in profound silence, Bajazet laughed 
and ridiculed the men who seemed to him to be 
cowards because they uttered no cry. The signal 
being given, the Ottomans moved to the sound of 
drums and the war-cry Allah ! At the commence- 
ment of the action, a Seljoukian chief, who was 
serving unwillingly under the banner of the sultan, 
perceiving Aidin, his former prince, in the ranks of 
the enemy, deserted with five hundred men. In an 
instant he was followed by the contingents of Men- 
tesche, Saronkan and Caramania, and by the Tar- 
tars, who had been won over by the letters and 
secret emissaries of Tamerlane. Bajazet's fears 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 93 

were aroused when he beheld the multitude of Mo- 
guls, deploying in a semi-circle, advance their two 
wings on the two sides of the Ottoman army, so as 
to meet in its rear. Stephen V., son of Lazarus and 
brother-in-law of the sultan, furious at the perfidy 
of the deserters, commenced the attack with incred- 
ible valor at the head of five thousand Servians, 
broke the ranks of the enemy and cut a passage for 
himself. A second attack as furious as the first 
again forced a way through, notwithstanding the 
depth of the line. But Stephen, approaching Baja- 
zet, advised him to fly ; he saw the most heroic 
efforts would be useless against so numerous a host. 
At the same moment he noticed a body of Servians 
seize Soliman, the eldest son of the sultan; opening 
a way for themselves a third time with irresistible 
rapidity, they fled towards the west to gain the sea. 
Abandoned by his auxiliaries and his own troops, 
by his viziers and emirs, Bajazet still determined to 
make a stand; he seized an eminence where resist- 
ance might be successful, and defended it with ten 
thousand Janizaries. But the Mogul hordes could 
divide with impunity, and attack all sides at the 
same moment. Some pursued the Servians on the 
route to Brusa; a second body cut to pieces the 
principal corps of the Ottomans, and a third pre- 
cipitated themselves upon the Janizaries. These 
intrepid soldiers defended themselves with unex- 
ampled courage. Nearly all of them fell, over- 
powered by the heat, consumed by thirst, exhausted 
by fatigue, or pierced by the sword of the enemy. 
Bajazet, mounted on an Arab steed, was left alone 
above the heap of his slaughtered guards. "De- 



94 THB LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

scend," cried out a Tartar to him, "the Khan Tam- 
erlane requires your presence. ' ' The haughty sul- 
tan obeyed, and mounted a small horse which the 
Moguls had in readiness to conduct him to their 
master. His son, Musa, and some of his principal 
emirs, were likewise made prisoners (20 July, 1402). 

When Bajazet was introduced, Tamerlane, certain 
of the victory, affected to despise him, and continued 
a game of chess with his son Schabroch. The Mo- 
guls bade their illustrious captive stand at the 
threshold of the imperial tent, and after a burst of 
joyous acclamations in honor of their chief, they 
said to him: "Behold Bajazet, the prince of the 
Turks, is in your power; we have brought him to 
your presence loaded with chains/' The great 
khan remained bending over his game, as if he had 
not heard their words. Their repeated cries at last 
attracted his attention. "You are then the prince 
who threatened us if we refused to make war against 
him," he said, regarding Bajazet. "I am he," 
replied the sultan, "but it does not become you to 
despise the conquered; learn to use your power with 
moderation. " The pride of the conqueror was not 
offended by the pride of the vanquished. The em- 
peror, noticing that his prisoner was overpowered 
by the heat and covered with dust, seated him by 
his side, and assured him in the kindest terms, in the 
name of God and his people, that he need have no 
fear for his life, and that God alone, who had united 
them, should separate his soul from his body. 

The sultan afterwards retired to one of the three 
magnificent tents assigned for his use by Tamer- 
lane, that he might repose after so fatiguing a battle ; 



THB LAST 0£SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 95 

he requested information of his sons, and asked for 
the consolation of their company. Messengers were 
dispatched in every direction, but they discovered 
only the prince Musa. The guards placed around 
Bajazet and his son under the orders of Hasan 
Beslas, one of the highest Tartar emirs and a rela- 
tive of the sultan, acquitted themselved of their 
charge with as much respect as vigilance. The 
kindness extended to the sultan inspired him with 
the hope of being able to make his escape. Ma- 
homet, his third son, who had survived the bloody 
defeat of Angora, resolved to deliver his father, who 
was allowed considerable liberty. Turkish miners 
entered the Mogul camp during the night, and 
commenced from an adjoining tent to dig a subter- 
ranean passage conducting to the one occupied by 
Bajazet. The work was already advanced, and the 
noble captive was cherishing the hope of being 
shortly restored to liberty, when a new division of 
guards sent to relieve those who had been upon 
duty, discovered the work and gave the alarm. 
They hastened to the tent of the sultan and found 
him with Khodja-Firouy, his faithful servant, pre- 
pared to attempt an escape. Mahomet and the 
miners made good their retreat. Irritated by this 
effort of his prisoner, Tamerlane overwhelmed him 
with reproaches and threats, and ordered Khodja- 
Firouy to be executed as the instigator of the enter- 
prise. From that day Bajazet was closely confined, 
the number of his guards was increased, and during 
the night he was chained hand and foot. From this 
extreme severity arose the story of the iron cage, 
which the credulous accepted without any reasona- 
ble foundation. 



96 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

The disastrous day of Angora annihilated the 
work of Amurat and Bajazet. A grandson of the 
conqueror marched against Brusa, and its capture 
was marked by all the horrors which signalized the 
conquests of those savage hordes, and by the pillage 
of the rich treasures of the first capital of the Otto- 
man sultans. The great khan next traversed Asia 
Minor, and reinstated in their principalities the 
Seljoukian emirs, in whose names he had combatted 
Bajazet. Of the five sons of the sultan, Musa, the 
second, shared his captivity; the youngest, Mus- 
tapha, had disappeared. To secure the ruin of the 
empire, Tamerlane divided between the other three 
all the dominions of their father which he had not 
occupied himself; Soliman received the investiture 
of the Ottoman possessions in Europe ; Isa, a part 
of Anatola, and Mahomet, the city of Amasia. 

All historians, Byzantine as well as Ottoman, 
agree that the cruelties exercised by the ferocious 
Tamerlane in his campaign of Asia Minor surpassed 
all the scenes of carnage which had hitherto been 
witnessed. Weary of victoty and satiated with 
blood, this merciless exterminator of nations was on 
his way to Samarcand, when the unfortunate Baja- 
zet died of an attack of apoplexy at Akshehr, the 
Antioch of Pisidia, about nine months after his de- 
feat (1404). On receiving the news of this prema- 
ture death, Tamerlane repeated the words of the 
Koran: "We belong to God, and we return to 
Him." It is said that he shed tears over the tomb 
of the sultan, his enemy, and permitted Musa to 
convey with pomp the body of his father to the 
mausoleum he had constructed at Brusa. He 



THE I.AST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 97 

granted his liberty to Musa, and the right to claim 
a portion of the inheritance from his brothers ; he 
clothed him with a mantle of honor, presented him 
a magnificent girdle, a sabre, and a quiver enriched 
with precious stones. 

After having completed the conquest of Georgia, 
passed the winter on the banks of the Araxa, and set- 
tled disturbances in Persia, Tamerlane re-entered 
Samarcand for the ninth time. During a short inter- 
val of repose, he displayed on the throne all the mag- 
nificence and authority of a rich and powerful mon- 
arch. He listened to the complaints of the people, and 
awarded punishments or recompenses according to 
the merits of the case. By the aid of the architects 
and artists made prisoners at the siege of Damas- 
cus, he embellished his residence with temples and 
palaces surpassing in beauty those which had been 
already erected in the Tartar capital. In the im- 
mense plain of Kanighul the great khan celebrated 
with extraordinary magnificence the nuptials of six 
princes, his grandsons. The ambassadors of all the 
sovereigns of Asia were present at the ceremony, and 
they placed at the feet of the emperor the richest 
and most costly presents. At the termination of 
these festivities, Tamerlane unfurled the imperial 
banner, and regardless of his age and the severity 
of the winter, he turned his steps toward China. 
Arriving at Otrar, where death awaited him, he was 
attacked by a burning fever, which was augmented 
by fatigue and the imprudent use of ice-water ; he 
expired in the seventy-first year of his age, after a 
reign of thirty-six years, leaving behind him the 
reputation of having been the greatest destroyer of 
cities and nations whom the world had ever seen. 

7 



CHAPTER IV. 

PEACE IN THE EMPIRE — MANUEL OPPOSES MUS- 
TAPHA TO THE SUI/TAN AMUR AT II. 

Manuel, returning to Constantinople, banishes his nephew John to the 
island of I^emaos — Solirnan makes an alliance with the Greek Em- 
peror — Discord among the Mussulman Princes — Isa, conquered by 
his brother, Mahomet, disappears from the political scene — Solirnan 
goes to Asia — Stratagem of Musa— Return of Solirnan to Europe — 
Defeat of Musa— Solirnan is deserted by his emirs — His death— Musa 
master of the Ottoman provinces of Europe — His cruel and despotic 
disposition — Musa"s resentment against the Greeks — Ravage of Ser- 
via — Siege of Constantinople by Musa — Mahomet makes an alliance 
with Manuel — He is unfortunate in his defense of Constantinople, and 
crosses over to Asia — He returns to Europe — He pursues his brother 
— Death of Musa— Accession of Mahomet I. — Reception of the Greek 
ambassadors by the Sultan— Mahomet renews the treaty of peace 
with the Christian Princes — Marriage of Prince John with Anne of 
Russia — Death of this Princess — Baptism and death of a son of Baja- 
zet— Second marriage of John with a daughter of the Marquis of 
Montferrat — Third marriage — Success of Mahomet in Asia — The im- 
poster Mustapha — Interview of Mahomet with Manuel — Death of 
Mahomet I. — Amurat II. his successor — Mustapha restored to liberty 
— His success — His defeat — His death. 

The unexpected diversion of the Khan of Tartary 
had revived the courage of the Christians. Return- 
ing to Constantinople, after having uselessly ex- 
posed his griefs in the capitals of Europe, Manuel 
watched a favorable opportunity to resume the su- 
preme authority. Upon receiving the news of the 
defeat of the Ottomans, by which Bajazet had been 
hurled like a star from heaven from the height of 
grandeur, he banished the Prince of Selymbria to 
the island of Lesbos, and remained sole sovereign. 
Solirnan, having escaped the disaster of Angora, 

(98) 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 99 

sought refuge at first at Brusa, but being pursued 
by the Tartars, he continued his flight, and went to 
Constantinople to implore the protection of the em- 
peror. "I beg you," he said to him, "to be a 
father to me, and I will obey you as a submissive 
son; I ask only the government of Thrace and the 
other provinces w 7 hich my ancestors possessed.'' 
Soliman afterwards promised to restore Thessa- 
lonica, the cities situated on the banks of the Stry- 
mon, the Morca, and the forts along the shore of the 
Propontis and the Euxine Sea. In order to cement 
more firmly his union with Manuel, he married the 
daughter of Theodore, the emperor's brother, leav- 
ing at the Byzantine court as hostages one of his 
young brothers and his sister Fatima. 

Like a strong tree which has bent to the storm, 
the Ottoman empire recovered itself as soon as the 
tempest had passed, and we shall soon see it resum- 
ing its vigor, although the civil discords of the 
Mussulman princes threatened it with destruction. 
Mahomet, the youngest of the sultan's sons, com- 
menced the struggle. Before his captivity, his 
father had confided to him the government of 
Amasia, which was the Turkish barrier against the 
Christians of Trebizond and Georgia, its citadel be- 
ing considered impregnable by the Asiatics. In the 
course of his expeditions, the victor of Angora 
seems to have overlooked this angle of Anatola. 
Skilful and courageous, Mahomet was able to main- 
tain his independence, and to drive from his province 
all the Mogul soldiery. After the death of Bajazet, 
he marched at the head of his troops to attack Isa, 
and dispossess him of Brusa, where he had fixed his 



IOO THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

residence. Overcome by the troops of Mahomet, 
Isa hastily left Asia, and sought an asylum at Con- 
stantinople, whilst the aggressor took possession of 
Brusa and Isnik. Having secured assistance from 
Soliman, Isa returned to Asia, but failed in an at- 
tempt to enter Brusa by surprise. Three subsequent 
defeats forced him to retreat to the mountainous 
parts of Caramania, where he disappeared, as his 
brother Mustapha had formerly done after the dis- 
astrous day of Ancyra. 

When Isa had quitted the scene, attention was 
fixed upon Soliman, a brave and energetic prince, 
successful in war, uniting clemency to intrepidity, 
but intemperate and indolent. Up to this time he 
had remained a passive spectator of the war carried 
on by his two brothers in Asia ; but roused from his 
apathy by the victories of Mahomet over Isa and the 
treason of Djourneid, governor of Smyrna, he col- 
lected his troops, and marched upon Brusa, which 
threw open its gates to receive him. In the mean- 
time, Djouneid had leagued with the princes of 
Caramania and Kermian, and he soon found himself 
at the head of a large army. But being secretly 
warned of a plot of his allies to betray him to Soli- 
man, he escaped from Ephesus during the night, 
went to the camp of this prince, and at early dawn 
presented himself before him with a rope around his 
neck, in the attitude of a repentant suppliant. " I 
acknowledge, my lord," he said, "that I am guilty 
and that I deserve death. Do with me as it pleases 
you." At the sight of the culprit thus humbling 
himself, Soliman was touched with compassion, and 
pardoned him. The defection of Djouneid filled the 



THK I^AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. IOI 

allied army with consternation, and they disbanded 
in the utmost disorder. Soliman entered Ephesus 
in triumph, where he abandoned himself to intoxi- 
cation and licentiousness. 

In the meantime his vizier, Ali Pasha, had by 
stratagem rendered himself master of Angora, and 
successfully defended Brusa against the attack of 
Mahomet, obliging this prince to retreat to Amasia. 
But at this time Musa proposed to Mahomet to 
unite with him in combatting Soliman in the heart 
of his own states, and Mahomet crossed into Europe. 

Obliged to abandon his project of the conquest of 
Asia by the powerful diversion of Musa in the pro- 
vinces of Europe, Soliman crossed the Hellespont, 
and approached Constantinople to claim from his 
ally, the Greek emperor, the aid he had promised 
him. The first engagement between the two broth- 
ers took place in the vicinity of this city. Secretly 
won over by Byzantine emissaries, the troops of 
Stephen, Prince of Servia, a partisan of Musa, 
ranged themselves at the very commencement of the 
action under the standard of Soliman. Musa being 
defeated, retreated to the states of the Prince of 
Walachia ; the conqueror retook Adrianople, where 
he was received amid the acclamations of the peo- 
ple, and was a second time acknowledged sultan of 
the Ottomans by all the Christian powers bordering 
on the empire. 

Musa devoted himself to collecting a new army, 
whilst Soliman gave himself up to a life of pleasure 
in Adrianople. Manuel strove in vain to rouse him 
to take active measures against Musa; the prince 
was deaf to his remonstrances, and continued to 



102 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

pass his nights in orgies and his days in sleep. 
Suddenly Musa appeared with his army at the gates 
of Adrianople, and Soliman, who had been rendered 
by his excesses cruel, unjust and odious to his peo- 
ple, found himself almost alone at the moment of 
danger. Abandoned by the chiefs of his army who, 
with the exception of three, passed over to his 
brother, he fled towards Constantinople. The 
beauty of his horse and the magnificence of his 
apparel caused him to be recognized by the inhabi- 
tants of the village of Dougoundji, who had been 
cruelly treated by his soldiers. Five brothers, skil- 
ful knights and experienced archers, rode forward 
to meet him, animated perhaps only by the desire 
of seeing him. But the prince took his bow and 
shot the first, and then the second ; the three others 
pierced him with their arrows and beheaded him 
(1410). 

Having become by his brother's death absolute 
master of the Ottoman provinces in Europe, Musa 
proclaimed himself, immediately on his accession, 
the friend of the Servians and Greeks ; but he soon 
exhibited a cruel and despotic disposition. He 
ordered the three murderers of Soliman to be taken 
to their own dwellings, all the inhabitants of the 
village, including women and children, to be shut 
up in their houses and burned alive, in expiation 
of the death of a prince, who ought not, he said, to 
have perished by the hands of slaves. He cherished 
a deep resentment against Manuel, his brother's 
former ally, and in an assembly of the nobles from 
Thrace, Macedonia and other provinces, who had 
come to do him homage, he betrayed his projects of 



THE LAST C^tSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 103 

vengeance. "Yon," he said, "who were formerly 
the friends and not the servants of my father, know 
how Asia was disturbed by the arms of Tamerlane, 
and how my father fell into his power. The em- 
peror and the inhabitants of Constantinople enticed 
the Scythians, Persians and other foreign nations 
into our country. My brother, governing Thrace 
and the other provinces, which my father had pos- 
sessed, forgot the sentiments of respect and piety 
which should have animated him towards his peo- 
ple, and God withdrew from him. He has placed in 
my hand the sword of the prophet, to exterminate 
the infidels and exalt the faithful. It is not just that 
Constantinople should possess so many cities, par- 
ticularly Thessalonica, which was acquired by my 
father with much labor, and where he converted 
the temples of idols into temples of God and his 
prophet. If it pleases God, I will subjugate the 
mother of cities, and of the churches therein con- 
tained I will make houses of God and his prophet." 
The assembly applauded the discourse as though 
it were an oracle proceeding from the very mouth 
of the Divinit}^. Musa, to avenge the treason of 
Stephen, entered Servia, ravaged it, led away as 
prisoners all the young men ; the remainder of the 
inhabitants perished under the swords of the fero- 
cious soldiers. To crown this act of barbarity, a 
magnificent banquet was served to the nobles of his 
court above the dead bodies of the Christians. Re- 
turning from Servia, he besieged Thessalonica, cap- 
tured all the cities on the Strymon with exception 
of Zeitoun (I/amia); he then sent Ibrahim, son of 
Ali Pasha, to the Greek emperor to demand tribute. 



104 the; last c^sars of byzantium. 

Ibrahim, penetrated with horror for the tyranny of 
Musa, advised the foreign monarch to resist the de- 
mands, and instead of returning to the court of the 
sultan, he went to Brusa, bearing a letter from 
Manuel to Mahomet, who was then master of Asia 
Minor. 

Incensed by the defection of Ibrahim, and still 
more irritated that the Emperor of Byzantium sup- 
ported Ourkhan, son of Soliman, as his rival in 
Europe, and aided Mahomet to oppose him in Asia, 
Musa marched upon Constantinople, which saw 
itself besieged for the third time by the Ottomans. 
He burned all the neighboring villages, which were, 
however, deserted by the inhabitants, whom Manuel 
had received in his capital. The sultan was con- 
fident of obliging the city to open its gates ; but his 
hopes were not realized, as his forces were unequal 
to the undertaking. Frequent sorties of the Greeks, 
skilfully directed, prevented him from approaching 
near the city. Still the besieged daily lost many of 
their brave defenders. The emperor was deeply 
afflicted. "I shall lose more," he said, "in losing 
ten soldiers out of a hundred, than if Musa were to 
lose a hundred out of a thousand." 

Musa pushed the siege with unabated vigor, and 
the city was daily more closely pressed by his 
troops. The emperor, therefore, considered it more 
advantageous not to prolong the contention between 
the two Ottoman princes, but to send aid to Ma- 
homet, the more formidable of the two sons of Baja- 
zet, and engage him to cross into Europe and make 
common cause with him against Musa. Docile to 
the advice of Ibrahim Pasha, his vizier, Mahomet, 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 105 

whose progress had been arrested at Gallipoli, accept- 
ed the proposition of Manuel, and advanced with his 
army to Scutari. Being informed of his arrival on 
the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, the heir of the 
Caesars went to meet the Mussulman prince on the 
imperial galley, concluded with him a treaty of 
peace and friendship, and conducted him to Con- 
stantinople. The noble stranger was welcomed 
with extraordinary magnificence, and his arrival 
was celebrated by festivities during three days. 
The fourth day Mahomet led his army, increased by 
the addition of a few Greeks, against Musa ; but he 
was defeated and driven back into the city. A 
second attempt proved equally unsuccessful. 

The Ottoman prince, afflicted by these two disas- 
ters, and tired of the inconstancy of fortune, whose 
changes he compared to the trembling of a leaf, said 
to the emperor: "Why do not you, who weigh 
affairs in a just scale, and who can foresee to which 
side it will incline, permit me in these evil days to 
leave you, so that either the enemy may be deliv- 
ered into my hands, or that I may fall into his ? I 
assure you that whatever has been decreed by God 
will infallibly happen. Allow me then to lead my 
forces to Adrianople ; accompany me with your good 
wishes, and leave the rest to Providence. ' ' The 
emperor was touched by these words, and the fol- 
lowing day the prince departed with his army, and 
crossed into Asia, where his presence was of im- 
portance in consequence of the successes of Djouneid, 
who had taken Smyrna and Ephesus. Djouneid, 
however, vainly attempted to hold out against 
Mahomet, and he was soon forced to submit. 



106 THE I<AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Yacoub, governor of Angora, had likewise taken 
advantage of the absence of his sovereign to raise 
the standard of revolt. Compelled to sue for par- 
don, he obtained his life, but not his liberty. 

These successes covered the arms of Mahomet 
with glory. The Prince of Soulkadr, his friend and 
ally, met him at the head of his forces in the plain 
of Angora, and they agreed to cross together into 
Europe, and endeavor, by a union w T ith the Prince 
of Servia and the Emperor of Byzantium, to termi- 
nate these dissensions by a single blow. To carry 
this arrangement into effect, they went first to Con- 
stantinople, and thence Mahomet proceeded towards 
the north, in order to effect a junction with the 
Prince of Servia. He attacked Adrianople, which 
city refused to open its gates until he had conquered 
his brother's army. He therefore pursued the 
enemy towards Philippopolis, repulsed the troops 
of Musa at the famous defile of Succi, and entered 
the plain of Sofia, where he obtained an abundance 
of provisions. Encouraged by the protestations of 
fidelity of many nobles, he continued his march to 
the banks of the Morava without encountering the 
enemy. There he found Stephen, with the Servian 
army and several beys who had deserted the stand- 
ard of Musa. The united armies pushed on to the 
banks of the Karrasson, and stopped two days in 
the plain of Tschamourli, where other officers of his 
brother came to present their homage. 

The third day they perceived Musa slowly de- 
scending the mountain at the head of seven thou- 
sand Janizaries, whose services he had purchased at 
a high price. Mahomet drew up his forces' in order 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 107 

of battle, and the two armies were confronting each 
other when Hasan, the aga of the Janizaries, who 
had deserted Musa and joined his brother, stepping 
in front of the ranks, addressed his former com- 
panions in arms in a loud voice : ' ' Why do you 
delay to embrace the cause of the most virtuous and 
most just of the Ottoman princes? Why do you 
remain miserable and crushed by the tyranny of one 
who is not able to secure his own safety, much less 
to watch over others ? ' ' 

This insolent speech excited the wrath of Musa, 
and followed by his Janizaries he precipitated him- 
self upon Hasan, who immediately fled. Musa 
overtook him and with a stroke of his sabre cleft 
his head ; but as he lifted his arm to deal another 
blow, a companion of the aga cut off the prince's 
hand. He was returning to his camp when the 
Janizaries, seeing the bloody arm of their sover- 
eign, were seized with a panic terror and dispersed 
in every direction. Musa himself fled towards 
Walachia. Some knights who had been sent in 
pursuit, found him among the dead (141 3). Thus 
finished the domination of Musa, a liberal prince, 
but so tyrannical in disposition that he alienated 
the affection of his beys and soldiers. His death 
terminated the war of succession which had deso- 
lated the Ottoman empire ever since the captivity 
of Bajazet. The conqueror ordered his brother's 
body to be conveyed to Brusa, and deposited in the 
tomb of their ancestors ; he repaired to Adrianople 
to receive the oath of fidelity from the nobles of the 
state, w 7 ho hastened to offer their homage. 

The accession of Mahomet I. to the throne was 



IOS THE I.AST CdSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

hailed with joy in the empire and the army. The 
new sultan was superior in every respect to his 
brothers. Whilst historians represent him to have 
been a remarkably handsome man, with the eye of 
an eagle and the strength of a lion, they also speak 
of him as a benevolent, generous, clement, and just 
prince, constant in his friendships, prudent and 
moderate. During his whole life, he was the faith- 
ful ally of the Byzantine emperor and the glorious 
support of the throne of Othman. To use the ex- 
pression of a Turkish writer : ' ' He was the Noah 
who saved from the deluge of the Tartars the ark of 
the empire beset by many dangers." 

Upon learning the victory of Mahomet over the 
last and most powerful of his rivals, Manuel sent an 
embassy to congratulate him and to remind him of 
the promises he had made during his sojourn at 
Constantinople. Faithful to his word, the sultan re- 
spected the obligations imposed on him b}^ gratitude, 
and restored to the emperor the castles which had 
been occupied on the Black Sea, the towns of Thes- 
saly and the fortresses of the Propontis. He 
cemented the treaty by renewing his oath, made 
generous presents to the ambassadors, and dismissed 
them with words which testified his affection for 
their sovereign: "Say to the emperor, my father, 
that having been restored by the power of God and 
his assistance to the throne of my ancestors, I shall, 
in future, be as submissive to his will as a son 
should be to that of his father ; that I shall preserve 
as long as I live the remembrance of his benefits, and 
that I shall seek every opportunity of doing him 
honor." No Mussulman prince had ever mani- 



THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 09 

fested a disposition so friendly towards the Greeks. 
Mahomet received at the same time the felicitations 
of the ambassadors of Servia, Walachia, Bulgaria, 
of the Duke of Janina, of the Despot of Lacedemon, 
and the Prince of Achaia. He invited all without 
distinction to his table, drank to their health, and 
said at parting with them : ' ' Say to your masters 
that I offer them peace and I accept it from them. 
May God punish him who violates it ! " 

The emperor Manuel, delivered from all fear of 
his enemies, occupied himself with the marriage of 
his son John, to whom he destined the crown (14 14). 
In order to strengthen the ties of friendship which 
united him with the Prince of Muscovia, he asked 
and obtained for his son the hand of Anne, the 
daughter of that prince. This marriage was not 
fortunate, for at the end of three years the young 
princess fell a victim to the plague, to the great re- 
gret of all the inhabitants. 

The contagion swept off many others, among 
them one of the sons of Bajazet. Of the two who 
had been left by Soliman as hostages at Constanti- 
nople, the elder, Kasim, was sent away with his 
sister, Fatima. Joseph exhibited great talent for 
the Greek language and the sciences, and he had 
received instructions with John, the emperor's son. 
He frequently expressed a wish to be admitted to 
baptism, declaring that he was a Christian and did 
not believe in the doctrines of- Mahomet. But the 
monarch opposed the administration of baptism to 
him, fearing to excite troubles on the part of the 
Turks, of whom a large number resided in Constan- 
tinople, and also of displeasing the sultan. When 



IIO THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the scourge which was decimating the inhabitants 
of the capital struck him also, Joseph, feeling his 
death approaching, said to the emperor: "My lord 
and father, I am about to leave this world to appear 
before that tribunal which is prepared in the other. 
I profess myself a Christian, and you refuse me the 
seal of the faith, the pledge of the Holy Ghost. 
Know that if I die without baptism, I shall accuse 
you of it before God, the irreproachable and incor- 
ruptible Judge." Manuel, touched by these words, 
yielded to the desires of the prince, who received 
baptism with the sentiments of the liveliest faith, 
and died the following day. The funeral obsequies 
were celebrated with uncommon magnificence. 
The body was borne with great pomp to the Monas- 
tery of the Precursor and deposited in a marble 
tomb. 

Three years afterwards, the eldest son of the em- 
peror John married the daughter of the Marquis 
of Montferrat, a princess of great beauty, and ac- 
cording to the historians of the time, of fine charac- 
ter. The prince, nevertheless, conceived so great a 
dislike for her, that he left her always alone. Re- 
spect for his father's choice prevented him from 
sending her back to Italy, but when the young wife 
saw that his aversion continued to increase, she 
determined to leave Constantinople. She commu- 
nicated her design to the Genoese of Galata, and 
one evening, attended by a numerous suite, she 
went to the garden as if for a walk. The Genoese 
received her on one of their galleys, and conveyed 
her to Pera, where she was received with all the 
honors due a sovereign. Her departure was known 



LAST CAESARS OF THE BYZANTIUM. Ill 

only in the morning of the following day, but no 
sooner was the news spread through the city, than 
the inhabitants in their indignation wished to de- 
stroy the quarter of the Genoese, to avenge what 
they called an insult. The emperor succeeded with 
difficulty in appeasing their anger; his son ex- 
perienced the greatest satisfaction. The Genoese 
had in the port a merchant vessel about to set sail 
for Italy. The princess embarked as soon as the 
weather permitted, and arrived safely at Genoa. 
Her brother, accompanied by the whole court, met 
her on the confines of Montferrat, and escorted her 
to the palace of her ancestors. Shortly afterwards 
she retired into a monastery, and consecrated her- 
self to God for the remainder of her life. 

However, the heir of the throne, on whom Manuel 
had already bestowed the title of emperor, did not 
renounce marriage. He dispatched ambassadors to 
Alexis Coruncenes, Prince of Trebizond, to ask the 
hand of his daughter Mary, a princess as celebrated 
for her beauty as for the purity of her virtue and 
the gentleness of her disposition. The father having 
consented to the union, Mary left for Constantinople. 
She was welcomed amid the acclamations of the in- 
habitants, and having received the nuptial benedic- 
tion from the patriarch Joseph, the young bride was 
proclaimed empress. 

After the conclusion of the marriage festivities, 
the emperor undertook to chastise the Prince of 
Achaia, who had withdrawn from his obedience. 
He embarked with a few troops, made a descent 
upon Morea, recalled the rebel to his duty, and left 
his son Theodore at Lacedemon as despot. On his 



112 THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

return be had an interview with Mahomet at Galli- 
poli. The sultan testified the greatest confidence in 
the sovereign, calling him his father. 

Having no anxiety in regard to the Christians, 
Mahomet turned his arms against Asia Minor, 
where his presence was imperatively demanded by 
the revolt of Djouneid and the rupture of peace by 
the Prince of Caramania. The former, who had 
occupied in his own name Smyrna, Sardis and Phil- 
adelphia, was conquered; and Mahomet, yielding 
to the entreaties of the mother of the traitor, granted 
him pardon, requiring only an oath of fidelity to the 
Ottoman race. He defeated the Prince of Cara- 
mania and reduced him to submission. 

Manuel, for his part, had taken advantage of the 
peace with the Ottomans to elevate on the isthmus 
of Corinth, for the distance of six miles, the wall 
which had been commenced by the ancient Greeks 
and repaired by Justinian, but which was now fall- 
ing into ruins. He had seven sons ; five had al- 
ready received a portion of his States. John was 
associated with him in the government ; Theodore 
was Despot of Lacedemon ; Andronicus, of Thessa- 
lonica ; Constantine, of Mesembria and Selymbria ; 
Andre, of Riscinium in Dalmatia. At this period 
the islands of Negropont and Candia belonged to 
the Venetians ; Chios and Lesbos, to the Genoese. 
The Acciainoli of Florence possessed a great part of 
Greece, which they had acquired in 1364 from Mary 
de Bourbon, Empress of Constantinople ; their por- 
tion comprehended Achaia, Bceotia, Phocis and 
Athens. Etolia, Arcanania and Northern Epirus 
were governed by the family of Tocco. Southern 



THE IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 113 

Epirus, or the principality of Albania, depended 
upon that of Pastriota, whose chief was then John 
Castriot. 

Mahomet had succeeded in restoring peace to the 
provinces of the Ottoman empire, when an imposter, 
claiming to be the youngest son of Bajazet, who had 
disappeared at the battle of Ancyra, 'attempted to 
usurp the sovereign power. All the Ottoman his- 
torians designate him as the false Mustapha, but 
Byzantine writers maintain that he was really the 
son of Bajazet and the elder brother of Mahomet. 
However that may be, Mustapha proclaimed him- 
self in Europe the true heir to the throne, and he 
w T as supported by Mirtsch, Prince of Wallachia, and 
by Djouneid, then governor of Nicopolis, the latter 
twice a rebel and twice restored to favor. The pre- 
tender crossed the Hermes, and marched towards 
Thessaly. Mahomet hastened to meet him, over- 
took him near Thessalonica, and was victorious in a 
pitched battle. Mustapha and Djouneid fled from 
the field, and sought refuge in the city, where they 
w 7 ere kindly received by the governor, Demetrius 
L,ascaris Leontarios, who promised them protection. 

The following day, Mahomet sent to the Greek 
commander one of his officers, to claim the fugitives 
and to remind him of the friendship which united 
him with the emperors. "Spare your nation,' ' he 
said, ' ' spare your nation the woes which would 
overwhelm it w r ere you to force me to turn my arms 
against her. The prey which has cast itself into 
your net is mine. It must be restored to me; other- 
wise I shall take your refusal as a signal for the 
rupture of peace, and I shall consider myself freed 
8 



114 ^ H ^ WST C^SARS OK BAZANTIUM. 

from any obligation in your regard. I will seize 
your city; all its inhabitants shall become my slaves; 
I will deprive you of life, and none of my enemies 
shall escape my vengeance." Leontarios, a man of 
consummate prudence, replied : ' ' You know, my 
lord, that I am the servant of Mahomet as well as the 
servant of the emperor, whom you call your father. 
But if I am obliged to execute your orders, I must 
also notify the emperor, my master, of what has oc- 
curred. He who took refuge here, as a partridge 
pursued by a hawk, is a prince of the blood, your 
brother ; but were he the lowest slave, I could not 
permit myself to violate rights so sacred without an 
order from the emperor. My master, I therefore 
humbly beg you to grant me time to write to him, 
and when I have received his orders, I will execute 
them with entire submission." 

The sultan did not content himself with the an- 
swer of Leontarios. He transmitted directly to 
Manuel the demand he had made of the governor. 
" You know," replied the emperor to him, ■ ' that I 
promised to be a father to you, and you promised to 
be my son. If we both keep our promise, the fear 
of God will be before our eyes and we shall observe 
His commandments; if we fail in this, the father 
will be accused of having betrayed his son, and the 
son will be condemned as the murderer of the father. 
As for me, I keep my oath, and you violate yours. 
I will never deliver up to you fugitives who have 
claimed my protection ; were I to do so, I should act 
as a tyrant, and not as a king. If my own brother 
were to cast himself into your arms as a place of 
refuge, you could not surrender him without viola- 



THE LAST CiGSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 115 

ting the right of asylum. Know then that I will 
not commit so base an action. Nevertheless, as in 
our last treaty you acknowledge my paternal au- 
thority, I swear to you by the Holy Trinity, that 
during your reign and life, Mustapha and Djouneid 
shall not be set at liberty. After your death I shall 
act as circumstances may seem to require." 

At the same time the following order was sent to 
Leontarios : "As soon as you receive these lines, 
place Mustapha and Djnouei'd on a galley and send 
them to Constantinople." Mahomet, fearing the 
dangerous consequences which might result from a 
rupture with the emperor, and being, moreover, sat- 
isfied that during his life the fugatives would not be 
at liberty, withdrew from Thessalonica and returned 
to Adrianople, freed from the anxiety caused by the 
revolt. 

Demetrius executed the emperor's order, and Ma- 
homet signed a treaty in virtue of which Manuel 
pledged himself to guard Mustapha, Djnouei'd and 
their thirty companions; and for this service the 
sultan was to pay annually the sum of three hun- 
dred thousand aspres. The negotiator of this treaty 
was Theologos Korax, a Greek of Philadelphia, a 
cunning, artful man, who, during the war between 
Tamerlane and Bajazet, had been administrator of 
his native city. He had there acquired an unenvi- 
able celebrity by delivering to the conquerors several 
of the principal citizens, whom the Tartar burned 
alive because they were unable to pay the contribu- 
tion he had exacted of them. Later he found such 
favor with Mahomet and his vizier, Bajazet-Pasha, 
that he often had the honor of sitting at table with 



Il6 THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

them, and by his influence he directed the most im- 
portant negotiations. For this reason the emperor 
had appointed him his interpreter ; he was, how- 
ever, suspected of sacrificing the Greek interests to 
the Ottoman. Lest Korax should succeed in de- 
livering Mustapha and Djnouei'd to Mahomet, they 
were sent to the island of Lemnos and kept under 
strict guard in the convent of the Blessed Virgin 
(1420). 

Filled with resentment against Mirtsch, who had 
aided Mustapha in his attempted usurpation, Ma- 
homet sent an army to ravage Wallachia. If the 
historian, Ducas, may be relied upon, he also cher- 
ished the design of being avenged on Constanti- 
nople ; if so, he kept it secret. However, the very 
year that Manuel had pledged himself to retain 
Mustapha a prisoner, the sultan passed by Constan- 
tinople to go to Asia. The emperor was solicited 
by the archons to take advantage of the opportunity 
of securing Mahomet and his brother, but he refused 
to violate the sacred rights of hospitality. He sent 
Demetrius Leontarios, Isaac Hasan and Manuel Can- 
tacuzenus, with many others, to meet him and offer 
him presents. The deputies received him outside 
the city and accompanied him to the shores of the 
Bosphorus. Manuel and his sons welcomed him on 
the imperial galley ; another, magnificently deco- 
rated, was prepared for the sultan. The two sov- 
ereigns conversed amicably together, proceeding to 
Scutari, where Mahomet landed and entered the tent 
which had been arranged for him. The day passed 
in a friendly intercourse ; towards evening, the sul- 
tan, mounting his horse, went to Nicomedia; the 
emperor returned by water to his capital. 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 117 

In the following spring Mahomet returned to 
Adrianople by the way of Gallipoli, and Manuel 
again sent Leontarios to compliment him. The 
sultan received the deputy in the kindest manner. 
Three days afterwards, as he w T as engaged in hunt- 
ing, he was struck with apoplexy and fell from his 
horse. His attendants bore him to his palace, where 
the most skilful physicians administered prompt 
remedies. Feeling that his end w T as near, he sent 
for his faithful vizier, Bajazet-Pasha, and conjured 
him in the name of God and the prophet to serve, 
wdth the same devotion of which he had given him 
so many proofs, his son, Amurat, the heir of the 
throne, who, being then governor of Amasia, was 
defending the eastern frontier of the empire against 
Kara-Juluk-Bianderi, a Turcoman lord of the dy- 
nasty of Mouton-Blanc. As to his two youngest 
sons, one of w 7 hom was seven and the other eight 
years of age, he confided them to the Greek em- 
peror, hoping to secure for them a protector against 
the cruelty of their brother Amurat. 

The day after the attack, Mahomet had sufficient 
strength to appear before the army, who welcomed 
him with their usual shouts of benediction and love. 
But the following day a second attack paralyzed his 
tongue, and he died in the evening (1421). Under 
these circumstances, the two viziers, Ibrahim and 
Bajazet, evinced much prudence and union. They 
kept secret the death of the sultan for forty days 
— until the arrival of his successor in the palace of 
Brusa. 

Amurat II. attained the sovereign power at the 
age of eighteen. He prescribed a mourning of eight 



Il8 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

da}^s for the obsequies of his father, whose remains 
were conveyed with great pomp to Bursa. He dis- 
patched ambassadors to the court of the princes of 
Caramania and Mentesche, to King Sigismund and 
the emperor, to announce his accession to the throne 
and to renew the treaties signed by Mahomet. 
Peace was sworn with Caramania, and a truce of 
five years concluded with Hungary. 

Before the arrival of the envoys at Constantinople, 
the Palseologus Lachynes and Theologos Korax 
had set out for Brusa, commissioned to demand the 
execution of Mahomet's testament, by w r hich his two 
youngest sons had been confided to the care of the 
emperor. In case of refusal, they were to threaten 
Amurat with proclaiming Mustapha son and heir 
presumptive of Bajazet, master of Turkey in Europe. 
The vizier, Bajazet-Pasha, replied in the name of 
the sultan, "that it was not seemly, and moreover 
it was contrary to the laws of the prophet, to aban- 
don the care and education of Mussulmans to infi- 
dels; that his master begged the emperor to re- 
nounce the guardianship, and to maintain the peace 
and friendship which the sultan was ready to con- 
firm with oaths." 

Manuel, upon receiving this reply, assembled his 
council ; opinions were divided, but the prudence of 
the old Manuel yielded to the presumption of his 
son, John, and without considering the danger to 
which he was about to expose himself in the miser- 
able condition of his empire, he sent Leontarios with 
ten well-armed galleys to the island of L,emnos, with 
orders to liberate Mustapha and Djnouei'd, and to 
convey them to the European continent. Leon- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 119 

tarios made the pretender swear never to oppose the 
will of the emperor, to obey him as his father, and 
leave his son in his hands as a hostage and a pledge 
of his fidelity to his oath. Mustapha submitted to 
every condition required of him. He promised, if 
success crowned his arms, to restore Gallipoli to 
Manuel, as also all the coast north of Constantinople 
as far as Wallachia, and on the south the cities of 
Thessaly as far as Erysos and Mount Athos. 

After the conclusion of the treaty confirmed by 
oath, Leontarios landed under the walls of Gallipoli 
with Mustapha and DjnoueTd. Many of the inhabi- 
tants of the city and neighboring country ranged 
themselves under the standard of the pretended son 
of Bajazet, and acknowledged him as the legitimate 
heir of the throne ; but the garrison remained faith- 
ful to Amurat, and refused to surrender the castle. 
Leaving Demetrius to continue the siege of Galli- 
poli, Mustapha marched with his partisans, whose 
numbers increased hourly, towards the promontory 
of Athos called Hexamilon, and he soon obtained 
possession of several places which, considering him 
the legitimate heir, opened their gates without op- 
position. 

This news reached Bursa whilst the new sultan 
was still receiving the submission of the people, who 
hastened in crowds to testify to him their sorrow for 
the death of his father and their joy at his accession 
to the throne. The nobles of the court, particularly 
the viziers Ibrahim-Pasha and Aiivaz-Pasha, who 
detested the insupportable pride of Bajazet-Pasha, 
and viewed with a jealous eye his wealth and influ- 
ence, persuaded Amurat to send him to Europe to 



120 THE I.AST C/ESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

appease the storm. Bajazet embarked with a small 
number of soldiers, and sailed through the middle 
of the Bosphorus, in order to avoid the Greek gal- 
leys. He then marched towards Adrianople, col- 
lected all the forces of Roumilia, thus increasing his 
army to thirty thousand men, and encamped in a 
marshy plain, whence the city could be only imper- 
fectly seen, on account of the woods which covered 
it. Mustapha, having been joined by some of the 
great vassals of the empire, advanced to meet the 
enemy. 

The two armies were facing each other, when 
Mustapha addressed the troops of Amurat, crying 
out to them that they ought not to refuse obedience 
to the real heir of the throne of Othman. Imme- 
diately, as if struck by a magic power, the army of 
Amurat deserted to the standard of Mustapha. 
Bajazet, seeing himself thus abandoned, considered 
by what means he could escape destruction; he 
alighted from his horse, and with his brother, 
Hamsa, prostrated himself at the feet of the victor. 
Thus delivered from the uncertain event of a battle, 
Mustapha was proclaimed by the troops the sover- 
eign lord of Roumania. Bajazet and Hamsa were 
brought before him in chains. Mustapha delivered 
them into the hands of Djnoue'id as his captives; by 
his orders the vizier was beheaded, but he restored 
Hamsa to liberty, little suspecting how dearly he 
was hereafter to pay for that act of clemency. This* 
easy triumph augmented Mustapha' s confidence; he 
advanced with his army to Adrianople. The inhab- 
itants met him outside the city, and testified by 
their acclamations their joy at his success. . 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 121 

The garrison of Gallipoli, considering it useless to 
prolong their resistance, surrendered to Iyeontarios. 
According to the conditions of the treaty recently 
signed, the servant of Manuel expected to take pos- 
session in the name of his master. He had already 
made arrangements to convey arms and ammunition 
into the fortress, when Djnoueid appeared, and dis- 
sipated his dreams of conquest. " It was not," he 
said, ' ' for the Greek emperor that we fought and 
incurred so many dangers. To God alone we owe 
the victory, and to God alone we return thanks. 
But as you shared the labors and fatigues by which 
we obtained success, we will recompense you by 
suitable presents, and by a continuation of our 
friendship. But do not imagine that we shall be- 
stow upon you fortresses and cities. Be grateful 
that we allow you to return to Constantinople ; we 
have not forgotten the ill treatment we received at 
L,emnos. I say to you, as the wolf in the proverb : 
your head is your recompense. Set sail at once for 
Constantinople : the wind is favorable. Salute the 
emperor in our name ; tell him in what manner God 
gave us the victory ; let him preserve his friendship 
for us, and we assure him in return of ours ; but let 
him not claim Gallipoli.' ' 

Indignant as well as surprised by this discourse, 
Iyeontarios replied briefly to the audacious Djnoueid, 
extolling the wisdom and courage of the emperor, 
and at the same time uttering menaces. He with- 
drew to his galleys, uncertain wha.t course to pursue. 
Mustapha arrived soon after, and said likewise: ( 'I 
did not take up arms for the advantage of the Em- 
peror Manuel ; I remember the oath I made to the 



122 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

prophet to reconquer the cities of Islamism ; among 
them is Gallipoli. I prefer at the terrible day of 
judgment to render an account of my oath to the 
emperor, to answering for the surrender of a Mussul- 
man city into the hands of the infidels. I will ob- 
serve the other conditions of the treaty which bind 
me to your master ; you are free to return to Con- 
stantinople. ' ' 

Thus was Greek policy foiled in the advantages it 
hoped to derive from the liberty and support granted 
to the pretender. Iyeontarios set sail for Constanti- 
nople. The perfidious conduct of Mustapha filled 
Manuel w T ith anger and grief. After long wavering 
as to the course to be pursued, he decided to renew 
with Amurat the existing treaties, but to demand 
of him at the same time the guardianship of the 
sultan's two younger brothers. His intentions were 
anticipated by a message from Amurat, who sent 
the grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha, to offer him on the 
part of his master peace and friendship. He en- 
deavored to persuade the emperor to furnish aid to 
the son of Mahomet, his old and faithful ally against 
Mustapha. Manuel still insisted that the young 
princes should be confided to his care, but as Ibra- 
him was unwilling to accede to the proposition, 
negotiations were broken off. In the meantime, 
Amurat had been strengthened by an alliance with 
an Italian people. 

A Genoese colony established at Phocsea, on the 
coast of Ionia, was enriching itself by the monopoly 
of alum, and by the payment of an annual tribute it 
secured for its flag many privileges from the Otto- 
mans. The governor of the Genoese, the .ambitious 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 23 

John Adorno, son of the doge, being informed of the 
enterprise of Mustapha, embraced the cause of Amu- 
rat, and made him an offer of vessels. The sultan, 
learning that the pretender was wasting his time in 
dissipation, and that he had irritated Manuel by the 
refusal to surrender Gallipoli, did not reject a propo- 
sition which would help to restore to him the inher- 
itance of his father. He replied to the Genoese by 
assurances of friendship, and sent an intelligent and 
able Turk with fifty thousand ducats to fit out the 
vessels necessasy to transport his army into Europe. 
In the meanwhile Mustapha, proud of his victory, 
abandoned himself to every excess. His favorite, 
Djnouei'd, aroused him from his unworthy inactivity 
by imparting to him news of the danger which men- 
aced him from the preparations of Amurat. He ad- 
vised him to combat the ally of the Genoese in Asia, 
and not allow him to embark from Lampsacus or 
Scutari. Djnouei'd was not actuated in his advice by 
devotion to the interests of Mustapha, but by the 
thought of a new treachery which he was contemplat- 
ing, and by means of which he hoped to escape the 
consequences of an undertaking which he regarded 
as desperate. The pretender followed the counsels of 
Djnouei'd, and landed with his army at Lampsacus, 
where he remained three days. Amurat immedi- 
ately left Brusa and took up a position beyond the 
river Ryndacus. There, surrounded by faithful ser- 
vants, he watched every movement of the enemy, 
who before long approached the opposite bank. 
The two armies were about to engage, when a large 
portion of the troops of Mustapha passed over to the 
standard of his rival. His numbers were still suffi- 



124 TH ^ IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

cient to leave him a hope of victory, but the defec- 
tion of Djnoueid spread a panic terror throughout 
the camp, and his army dispersed in every direc- 
tion ; he himself galloped at full speed towards 
L,ampsacus. Fortunately he found a bark in which 
he reached Gallipoli, with no other escort than his 
household servants. 

Master of the field without having struck a blow, 
Amurat directed his steps towards Lampsacus 
(lyampsaki), and met between this city and Gallipoli 
the podesta Adorno, who, faithful to his promises, 
was awaiting his arrival with a squadron of seven 
vessels of war. The sultan, accompanied by five 
hundred guards, entered the largest, the crew of 
which was composed of eight hundred of their 
bravest men ; he entrusted to them his liberty and 
his life. The other vessels carried, each, an equal 
number of Turks and Franks. 

When, from the height of the ramparts of Gallipoli, 
Mustapha saw the enormous vessels covering the 
water like so many islands, he was agitated by the 
darkest presentiments. He sent to demand from 
Adorno an interview with one of his officers. He 
offered him fifty thousand ducats if he would betray 
Amurat into his hands. Adorno indignantly re- 
jected the proposition. The troops disembarked in 
sight of Mustapha, whose soldiers protected the 
port. Not being disposed to defend the falling for- 
tunes of their master, they fled as soon as the archers 
poured on them a shower of arrows. The pretender, 
betrayed a second time, fled to Adrianople, collected 
together his treasures, and continued his flight to- 
wards Wallachia. 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 25 

Amurat, thus favored by the chances of war, de- 
la}^ed three days at Gallipoli, put to death the 
soldiers who had opposed his debarkation, and 
marched to the conquest of Adrianople with Adorno, 
his marines, and two thousand Italians armed with 
lances and battle-axes. The inhabitants of Adrian- 
ople met him in crowds. He received them with 
extreme kindness, and invited them all to a splendid 
banquet spread out in his father's palace. Adorno, 
his officers, and even his soldiers, were likewise 
entertained, and on this occasion the sultan recom- 
pensed the services of the podesta by bestowing upon 
him the castle of Perithoreon, and during his life 
the revenues of the new Phoccea. The captains and 
sailors of the Genoese fleet were also generously re- 
warded. Mustapha was pursued and captured by 
his own servants, and delivered to Amurat. The 
sultan ordered him to be hung on the public road 
as a common criminal, in order to confirm by the 
ignominy of his death the general impression of the 
Ottomans that he was an imposter artfully brought 
forward by the Emperor Manuel. 

Being now rid of the rival who had been opposed 
to him by the perfidious counsels of the emperor, 
the sultan resumed against Constantinople the pro- 
jects of vengeance which prudence had forced him 
to defer, but which were to be not the less terrible 
from the delay. Thus recommenced the war of 
Islamism against Christianity, a war destined to be 
the last for the empire, and which was to plant the 
Crescent upon its ruins, and bear it triumphant to 
the shores of the Danube. 



CHAPTER V. 

PROGRESS OF THE OTTOMANS — UNION OF THE 
CHURCHES. 

Embassy of Manuel to the Sultan — March of the Ottomans upon Con- 
stantinople — Theologos Korax accused of betraying the Greeks— His 
death— Siege of Constantinople by Amurat — Defence of the Greeks 
— Revolt and death of Mustapha, brother of Amurat— Success of the 
Ottoman generals in Europe — Death of the Emperor Manuel — John 
II. Palseologus his successor — Treaty of John Palseologus with Amu- 
rat — Insolence of Djnouei'd punished — Amurat refuses to treat with 
the Venetians — Siege and capture of Thessalonica by the Turks — 
Surrender of Janina — Hostilities against Serria, Wallachia, and 
Hungary — Negotiations of John Palseologus with the Latins for the 
union of the two Churches — Council of the Greeks and Latins at 
Ferrara and Florence — Union of the two Churches— General discon- 
tent— Metrophanes elevated to the See of Constantinople. 

When Manuel saw the whole edifice of his policy 
crumble beneath his feet, he sent as ambassadors to 
the victor two men of noble birth and highly es- 
teemed for their prudence and wisdom, Palseologus 
Lachanes and Marcus Jagaries. They were deputed 
to felicitate the sultan upon the death of the usurper, 
and to try to convince him that their master was not 
to blame in what had happened; that the Vizier 
Bajazet was answerable for the rupture of the nego- 
tiations ; in a word, they were to make every effort 
to disarm his anger. But Amurat had forgotten 
none of his causes of complaint against the emperor ; 
he refused to admit the ambassadors until he had 
completed his arrangements. When his army was 
prepared to march upon Constantinople, he dis- 
missed them, saying: "Assure the emperor that I 

(126) 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 27 

shall soon visit him." After a few days he set out 
at the head of twenty thousand men to besiege the 
capital of the Byzantine empire (1422"). 

The approach of the troops of Amurat dismayed 
the people. They dreaded the struggle with a war- 
like and barbarous nation animated by fanaticism, 
the conquerors of so many Burgundian and French 
cavaliers at Nicopolis, w r hose former successes con- 
tributed to augment their desire for conquest. Man- 
uel's subjects remarked with dismay that whilst 
the Turks were real barbarians in their customs, 
they had borrowed from Greek civilization all those 
arts of warfare which might assure them victory, 
such as machines of war, a certain kind of tactics, 
and the sort of discipline which had made the 
Byzantine troops effective. Their sultans had ren- 
dered them more formidable by restraining their 
impetuosity and by creating among them the Spahis 
and Janissaries, disciplined and permanent bodies of 
soldiers. 

The inhabitants in the midst of these alarms im- 
agined that Theologos Korax had provoked hostili- 
ties by his acts, because he had not been sent on the 
late embassy to the sultan ; and they indulged in 
bitter invectives against him. The emperor, to lull 
these suspicions and calm the excitement, deputed 
this man to go to Amurat, who had already placed 
his camp before the walls of the city. Korax held a 
long conference with the sultan, without any result. 
One of his most intimate friends asserted that he had 
heard him promise to deliver the city upon condition 
that Amurat would confide the government of it to 
him. As the accused left the monastery where 



128 THK IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Manuel was remaining, Prince John, who was en- 
gaged in superintending the defence of the ramparts, 
was suddenly overwhelmed with insults by the in- 
habitants and soldiery. The old emperor, hearing 
the tumult, demanded the cause. They led into his 
presence the man who had discovered the perfidy. 
Manuel ordered him to be guarded with Korax, that 
the truth of the accusation might be investigated the 
following day. 

Dissatisfied with the indulgence of the sovereign, 
and incensed to find the interests of Constantinople 
betrayed by those who derived thence their fortune 
and glory, the guard of the corps of Cretans re- 
volted, and demanded that the interpreter should be 
delivered to them. Manuel dared not resist the 
furious multitude that beset his palace, and he al- 
lowed them to take the unhappy ambassador from 
prison, to acquit him if innocent, or condemn him 
if guilty. The soldiers hastened to his house, where 
they found writings against the emperor, precious 
stuffs, vessels of gold and silver which had been 
entrusted to him by the sultan for his master, and 
which they accused him of retaining for himself. 
The soldiers dragged him from the prison to the im- 
perial palace, plucked out his eyes, tore the flesh 
from his face, and cast him thus mutilated into a 
dungeon, where he expired after three days of 
frightful torture. His house was plundered, and 
then burned to the ground. 

Amurat learned with regret and anger the cause 
and manner of the death of Korax, to whom he had 
always testified much kindness. He attributed this 
tragic end to the calumnies of another Greek inter- 



THE LAST CJESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 29 

preter, the Ephesian Michael Pyllis, a man of noble 
birth, and a Christian, employed as a secretary in 
the imperial palace. This man had become an ob- 
ject of general aversion. Unfortunately for himself, 
he was at that time in the camp of the sultan ; the 
Turks seized and tortured him. The following day 
they kindled an immense fire, and threatened to 
cast him alive into the flames unless he renounced 
his faith. The wretch consented to profess Islamism 
publicly, and he terminated his life long afterwards 
in his apostasy. 

Early in June, Michael Bey appeared under the 
walls of Constantinople with an army ten thousand 
strong, devastated the surrounding country, burned 
the villages, destroyed the grain, killed the cattle, 
and reduced the inhabitants to slavery. Ten days 
later the besieging army arrived, and finding only 
ruins, vented their rage by uprooting the olive-trees 
and vines. Lastly came Amurat himself, proud of 
his recent victory and inflamed with anger against 
the Christians. In imagination he had completed 
the conquest of the city, and inundated the country, 
changed into a desert, with his infidel hordes. He 
ordered immediately the construction of a wall 
which was to extend from the Golden Gate to the 
Gate of Bois. This rampart, only an arrow-shot 
distant from the city, formed of enormous posts, 
filled in the intervals with fascines and earth, and 
supported by hurdles, could resist the stones thrown 
from machines and the discharge of fire-arms. 
Directing their principal attack against an old 
tower, the besiegers drew to the walls, on wheels, 
wooden towers of the same height as those within 
9 



I30 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the city. The soldiers, animated by the presence of 
the sultan, displayed a wonderful activity ; a portion 
fabricated machines to be used in the assault, others 
dug mines b}^ which to secure a subterranean en- 
trance within the walls. 

In order to excite the courage of the troops and 
augment the number of the besiegers, Amurat pro- 
claimed that Constantinople and all its treasures 
should be abandoned to the Mussulmans. The pros- 
pect of conquering the city of the Caesars and the 
hope of booty attracted from Asia pious volunteers, 
who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, and a 
multitude of those who had no regular occupation. 
The Ottoman camp was soon filled with cattle and 
slave dealers, usurers, and others of the same stamp, 
calculating already the value of the booty which 
they expected to fall to the victors. Many dervishes, 
also coveting a portion of the prey, hastened to the 
army. Among these one was particularly noticed 
for his handsome countenance and imposing ap- 
pearance — the grand Scheick Seid-Bochari, emir- 
sultan — son-in-law of Bajazet Ilderim. Proud of 
his descent from the prophet, of his alliance with 
the family of the sultan, and of the accomplishment 
of his prediction as to the event of the battle of 
Ouloubad (Ryndacus), he advanced, mounted on a 
mule and surrounded by a crowd of fanatic dervishes 
who strove to kiss his hands, his feet, and even the 
trappings of his mule. 

As soon as Seid-Bochari, whose presence w T as to 
consecrate Amurat' s enterprise, had alighted, he 
retired to his tent to consult the books of the sooth- 
sayers, in order to fix the day and hour when the 



THE LAST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 131 

ramparts of the city would fall under the Moslem 
assault. Whilst he was thus engaged in consulting 
the prophet, the dervishes, his companions, filled 
the air with frightful shrieks and insulted the de- 
fenders of Constantinople. "Where is your God, 
blind Greeks?" they exclaimed; "where is your 
Christ? Where the saints who should protect you ? 
To-morrow we shall enter your city ; to-morrow we 
shall lead you into slavery with your wives and 
children. The prophet has so decreed." 

At last the emir-sultan emerged from his tent, and 
announced in a solemn voice, as though inspired by 
God, that on Monday, August 24, 1422, at one 
o'clock in the afternoon, he would mount his 
charger, would wave his drawn sword, thrice utter 
the war-cry, and that the city would immediately 
fall into the hands of the Ottomans. On the ap- 
pointed day and hour, Bochari mounted a superb 
courser ; he approached the ramparts with the ma- 
jesty of a prophet, escorted by five hundred der- 
vishes and preceded by an immense shield. The 
pious procession thrice uttered the Turkish war-cry. 
The emir-sultan drew his cimeter, cried in a loud 
voice "Allah ! Mahomet!" pushed his charger to a 
gallop, and ordered a general assault. Immediately 
the combat commenced throughout the w T hole length 
of the wall on the side of the land from the Golden 
Gate to the Gate of Bois. The Emperor Manuel 
was dying. John, the heir of the throne, took his 
stand outside the Gate Saint Romain, encouraging 
the soldiers and the inhabitants to defend courage- 
ously their faith, their homes and their liberty 
against the Mussulmans. The whole population 



132 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

was under arms ; women and children used scythes 
for sabres, and the heads of casks for shields ; the 
arrows fell so thick and fast that the light of the sun 
was obscured. The archons and the ephors at the 
head of the besieged combated the viziers and the 
emirs of the Turks. The Greek monks and priests 
wished likewise to share the danger with their 
fellow-citizens, and fought valiantly by their side. 
In the midst of the hissing of the flying arrows and 
the clashing of arms, in the height of the combat, 
Allah and Mahomet resounded from the ranks of 
the Mussulmans ; Christ and Panagia (Blessed Vir- 
gin) was echoed back by the Greeks. Never was 
there a more hotly contested battle, never was there 
a more frightful tumult. The sun was sinking be- 
low the horizon, and still the Greeks continued to 
repel with heroic courage the attacks of their num- 
erous enemies, when the Turks desisted from the 
combat, set fire to their machines, and fled as if 
miraculously repulsed, thus giving the lie to their 
fanatical imposter. 

The inhabitants attributed the miracle to the 
Panagia. The historian Canano relates that the 
emir-sultan asserted that a beautiful virgin, clothed 
in blue, and surrounded by a dazzling light, had 
traversed the rampart when the assault was the most 
furious, and at the sight of this supernatural appa- 
rition, the besiegers were panic stricken, and fled in 
disorder to their camp. An extraordinary circum- 
stance attending this attack was the small loss ex- 
perienced on both sides. After this terrible struggle, 
the Turks left only one thousand dead on the field ; 
the Greeks had only thirty killed and seventy 



THE LAST CJESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 33 

wounded. They pursued the enemy, and obtained 
possession of several machines and cannons. The 
employment of the latter destructive invention was 
advised by the Genoese, who were ever ready to 
sacrifice every other sentiment to their mercantile 
cupidity. 

Turkish authors explain the retreat of the Otto- 
mans in the following manner : Although his pros- 
tration was so extreme as to convince him that 
death was near at hand, the Emperor Manuel had 
recourse to every expedient which his Greek policy 
could suggest to rid himself of his formidable enemy. 
At the very moment that the sultan was advancing 
against Byzantium, he succeeded in bringing for- 
ward a new rival in the person of another Mustapha, 
brother of the sultan, only fifteen }^ears f age. He 
had taken refuge with his tutor, Elias, in Cara- 
mania, whence the emperor recalled him to Asia 
Minor, Whilst he was conducting the siege of Con- 
stantinople, Amurat learned that his brother had 
raised the standard of revolt, for the purpose of dis- 
puting the crown with him, and that he had ob- 
tained possession of Niesea. This unexpected news 
forced him to abandon at once the siege of the capi- 
tal of the Byzantine empire, and return to Asia, 
where his presence alone could quell the insurrec- 
tion. Before his departure he appointed the son 
of Eurenos governor of Roumilia, and confided to 
Firouz Bey the command of the troops destined to 
operate in the north against Wallachia. 

Amurat was marching against Mustapha, when 
the 3^oung prince secretly left his camp and visited 
Manuel at Constantinople. He remained with him 



134 TH £ IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

several days in order to secure the assistance of the 
Greeks, and returned to Asia by the way of Selym- 
bria. But in the meantime Elias had been bought 
over to betray his master to the sultan by the prom- 
ise of the government of Anatolia. The traitor 
seized the prince, conducted him to the camp of 
Amurat, and placed him in the hands of Mezid-Bey. 
By the sultan's order, Mustapha was hung on a fig- 
tree before the gates of Nicaea. His body was taken 
to Brusa and laid in the tomb beside his father, Ma- 
homet I. 

Although the death of this second competitor for 
the throne had put an end to domestic dissensions, 
Amurat remained in Asia for the purpose of reduc- 
ing to submission the prince of Sinope, who wished 
to render himself independent of the sultan. In 
Europe success had crowned the arms of his gen- 
erals ; in the north Firouz-Bey had forced Urakul, 
prince of Wallachia, to purchase peace by the pay- 
ment of the tribute which had been due for two 
years ; in the south the son of Eurenos had contin- 
ued hostilities against the Greeks. He penetrated 
into Peloponnesus, took Lacedemon, Gardica and 
Tavia, and gained near the latter city a signal vic- 
tory over the Albanian forces. In imitation of 
Tamerlane, he erected a pyramid with the skulls of 
eight hundred prisoners. 

After having conquered the prince of Sinope, and 
granted him peace upon condition of obtaining the 
hand of his daughter in marriage, with the rich 
mines of Kastemouni as her dower, the sultan re- 
turned to Adrianople. Here he received his be- 
trothed with all the honors due her exalted rank, 



THE LAST CJESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 35 

and celebrated his marriage with great magnificence. 
Whilst the son of Mahomet was leading his Janis- 
saries to victory, both in Europe and Asia, the old 
Manuel terminated his miserable life. Towards the 
end of his days he had associated with him his son, 
John II. Palseologus, and had almost entirely left to 
him the care of government. He died clothed in 
the monastic habit (1425). His son, John II., suc- 
ceeded him, being recognized as sole emperor of the 
Greeks. 

The same year Amurat consoled himself for the 
failure of his attack upon Constantinople by an ex- 
pedition into central Greece. The Prince of Albania 
submitted to him, and as a pledge of his fidelity, 
delivered to him his four sons, who thenceforth 
remained in the service of the Sublime Porte. The 
youngest, Georges, was remarkable for the beauty 
of his features, his personal graces and his talents. 
Returning to Adrianople, the sultan made a treaty 
with John II., to whom he gave the permission to 
reign in consideration of an annual tribute of three 
hundred thousand aspres, or thirty thousand ducats, 
and the cession of the cities and fortresses situated 
on the Black Sea, with the exception of Selymbria 
and Deikos, the tw T o advance posts of the capital, 
and the other places on the Strymon. John Pal- 
seologus flattered himself with having thus pur- 
chased a tranquillity which would be undisturbed 
by either foreign or domestic foes. His brother 
Constantine had exchanged his cities of Mesembria 
and Selymbria for the principality of Lacedemon, 
and he thus formed in Peloponnesus a domination 
respected by the neighboring powers. His brother 



136 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Andronicus had ceded his city of Thessalonica to 
the Venetians, upon the promise that the inhabi- 
tants should be protected and enjoy the rights of 
citizens of Venice ; he hoped from their maritime 
prosperity to be able to make an advantageous 
alliance with them against the Ottomans. 

About this period Amurat renewed the treaty of 
peace formerly existing with the princes of Servia 
and Wallachia, and signed a truce of two years with 
Sigismund, King of Hungary, who had been recently 
elected Emperor of Germany. The two sovereigns 
exchanged rich presents, the sultan sending gold 
and silk fabrics, vases and ornamental carpets, and 
Sigismund returning gold pommels, pieces of velvet 
and cloth, six race-horses, and a thousand gold 
florins. 

Being at peace with foreign princes, Amurat took 
advantage of the temporary tranquillity to punish 
Djnoueid, who after his restoration to the govern- 
ment of ATdin, had refused to acknowledge the suze- 
rainty of the Sublime Porte. Brave and skilful, but 
unquiet and turbulent, Djnoue'id had lent his aid to 
every revolt as it arose ; he was at last overpowered 
by Khalil, whom the sultan deputed to subdue the 
rebel. Djnoueid, seeing the impossibility of resist- 
ance to forces so far superior to his own, surren- 
dered to Amurat' s lieutenant, who promised him a 
safe conduct. But Hamsa Bey, a relation of Khalil 
and brother of Bajazet Pasha, whom Djnoueid had 
put to death, sent four executioners in the night, 
charged to strangle the prisoner and his family. 
Their heads were sent to Adrianople and placed at 
the sultan's feet. 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 37 

Being thus delivered from his dangerous enemy, 
the Ottoman sovereign repaired to Ephesus, to re- 
ceive the ambassadors of the princes of Europe and 
Asia, his vassals, who came on the part of their 
masters to offer their congratulations. Among them 
appeared the envoys of Dan of Wallachia, of Layar, 
despot of Servia, and Lucas Notaras, prime minister 
of the Emperor of Byzantium ; also Genoese from 
Chios, and even Knights of St. John of Jerusalem 
from the island of Rhodes. He renewed his alliance 
with all excepting the Venetians. "The city of 
Thessalonica," said Amurat, "forms a part of my 
inheritance; Bajazet, my grandfather, took it from 
the Romans by force of arms ; if the Romans had 
reconquered it they w r ould refuse to restore it to me, 
and would accuse me of injustice if I asked it of 
them ; but by what right do you, who are Latins 
from Italy, claim it? Unless you withdraw prompt- 
ly, I shall expel you by force." 

Anxious to preserve peace, the Venetians endeav- 
ored, without success, to make a treaty which would 
insure their tranquillity. Amurat ordered prepara- 
tions to be made for an expedition against Thessa- 
lonica. As soon as they were completed he went to 
Seues, recalled his lieutenant, Hamsa-Bey, from 
Asia, and sent him to invest that important city. 
Hamsa soon appeared under the ramparts, at the 
head of an army a hundred times more numerous 
than that of the besieged (1429). 

The Venetians, determined to defend the city to 
the last extremity, placed the garrison at different 
points of the walls ; but their numbers were so small 
that two or even three bastions were in some parts 



I38 THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

manned by only one or two soldiers. On the 26th 
of February a violent earthquake shook the ground, 
and in the midst of the general terror, some Turkish 
soldiers penetrated into the city, hoping to come to 
an agreement with the inhabitants, by which they 
might take possession in the name of Amurat with- 
out making an attack. Many of the Greeks favored 
the proposition, and the attempt might have proved 
successful, but for the distrust of the Venetians, 
which was pushed so far, that in relieving the senti- 
nels they always placed by the side of every Greek 
soldier a man taken from the mercenary troops, 
which were made up of all nationalities. In vain 
Hamsa thrice summoned the besieged to surrender, 
promising to spare the city and grant their liberty to 
the citizens ; in vain he shot arrows wrapped in let- 
ters confirming these assurances with oaths. The 
Venetians would listen to no proposition which in- 
volved their submission ; and the Greeks, who en- 
tered into the views of the enemy, were held in check 
by force. 

Under these circumstances, Hamsa, having pre- 
pared a large number of scaling ladders and other 
suitable machines of war, sent messengers to Amurat, 
begging him to give the order for the assault before 
the arrival of the troops which the besieged were 
expecting from Venice. The sultan came in person, 
and determined upon the sack of Thessalonica. But 
the place was strong, and his troops were opposed 
by men of determination. The night of the 1st of 
March a report was circulated that a general assault 
was to be made the following day. The people 
filled the churches, imploring the protection of 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 39 

Heaven against the barbarous Ottomans. The Vene- 
tians withdrew from the ramparts a portion of the 
garrison, at most consisting of fifteen hundred men, 
to protect the port, fearing that the Turks would 
seek to burn those galleys of the republic'which had 
arrived during the day. The Greeks, not under- 
standing the cause of this movement, supposed that 
the Venetians had renounced the idea of defending 
the city, and they returned to their homes. 

At the break of day, the Turks, inflamed with a 
thirst for blood and pillage, rushed to the assault. 
Amurat sounded the trumpet, and proclaimed that 
all the booty should be abandoned to the soldiers, 
that he reserved for himself only the city. The 
army surrounded Thessalonica from east to west ; 
on the eastern side, where the walls were the weak- 
est, was placed a chosen corps under the orders of 
the sultan himself, w T h6, by his presence, animated 
the assailants to extraordinary exertion, and urged 
them on by presents and promises of future rewards. 
He distributed garments of silk to the bravest, and 
paid for every stone removed from a bastion the 
same price as for a prisoner. The arrows shot by 
the Turks fell so thick and fast that the Venetians 
were scarcely able to remain long enough upon the 
parapets to hurl blindly a few heavy stones upon the 
assailants, to prevent them from mounting the lad- 
ders. Still, they succeeded in preciptating many 
into the trenches. At last, a soldier, holding his 
sabre between his teeth, gained the summit of the 
tower of the Trigonon, killed the sentinel, and threw 
his head over the wall. The Greeks, supposing 
that the ramparts had been carried, dispersed in 



140 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

evety direction. The example of their intrepid com- 
panion excited the Turks to redouble their efforts ; 
they placed scaling ladders against the Trigorion 
and the Tower of Samaro, and the bastion was 
taken amid the clashing of timbrels. 

Resistance was now impossible, and the besieged 
thought only of means of escape ; they concealed 
themselves in every available place, or endeavored 
to reach the port, hoping to be able to make a stand 
there, as it was well fortified. Upon reaching the 
outer wall, they found the Venetians collected in a 
body ; but, overcome by terror, they soon cast them- 
selves into the sea and made for the galleys, which 
were anchored near. The Ottoman army, scaling 
walls or opening a way through the mines, pene- 
trated Thessalonica on all sides, and rushed in a 
body towards the harbor, where the inhabitants had 
sought refuge after the departure of the Venetians. 
Then commenced the usual scenes of horror, the 
general pillage and the pursuit of slaves. The fero- 
cious hordes of Amurat were touched neither by the 
tears of innocence, the groans of old age, nor the 
cries of infancy ; under all circumstances they were 
without pity. Women w 7 ere torn from the arms of 
their husbands ; children from their mothers' breast. 
All who made the least resistance were massacred. 
It was estimated that seven thousand were reduced 
to slavery. Not a house, not a palace escaped dev- 
astation; not a church profanation. Among the 
prisoners, a few women gained over by deceitful 
promises, and men yielding to the violence of tor- 
ture, informed the enemy that the most valuable 
articles and the treasures had been concealed in the 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 141 

churches under the altars ; the Turks overthrew 
them and left not a stone upon a stone. The orna- 
ments and pictures were committed to the flames or 
broken to pieces. The tomb of St. Demetrius was 
opened, and the body cut in bits, which were scat- 
tered in every direction. Such was the immense 
destruction which attended the capture of Thes- 
salonica. The historian, Ducas, however, says that 
this is but a feeble image, a slight disaster, com- 
pared with the violence and cruelty which was soon 
to afflict the capital of the empire. 

When the troops were satiated w T ith the work of 
plunder, Amurat took possession of the city, and 
permitted the prisoners who had fallen to his share 
to return to their dwellings. He supplied the 
places of those who had been killed or made slaves 
by families brought in from neighboring villages. 
The sultan converted into mosques the church of 
Saint Mary and the convent of St. John the Pre- 
cursor. He did not, however, profane the church 
of St. Demetrius ; on the contrary, he visited it and 
restored it to the Christians. The Turks contented 
themselves with removing from other religious 
edifices an immense quantity of slabs of marble, 
intending to convey them to Adrianople. The 
Greeks, who had'hoped to find in Amurat the bene- 
factor as well as the conqueror of Thessalonica, soon 
saw the hopes they had cherished fade away. The 
sultan claimed the most beautiful edifices as his 
private property, bestowed the finest palaces upon 
his principal officers, and transformed all the tem- 
ples but four into mosques. The cloisters became 
caravansaries, and the stones of the demolished 



142 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

churches were used for the construction of a Turkish 
bath in the centre of the city. ' 'Thessalonica, ' ' says 
Joannes Anagnosa, an eye-witness of her disaster, 
"Thessalonica, humbled and defiled, shed bitter 
tears ; she mourned because she had not been anni- 
hilated by an earthquake, swallowed up by the 
waves of the sea, or devoured by the flames. Better 
would it have been," he exclaimed in his affliction, 
"that she had never existed, than to have been thus 
outraged and destroyed. ' ' 

Thus Thessalonica, conquered in 1386 by Amurat 
L, restored to the Byzantines, retaken eight years 
afterwards by Bajazet, and later by Mahomet, fell 
at last for the fourth time into the power of the 
Ottomans, and thenceforth, it belonged to their 
empire under the name of Salonica. Notwithstand- 
ing the many times it had been pillaged, the city, 
built an amphitheatre at the foot of Mount Kurtiath, 
with a harbor capable of containing three hundred 
vessels, recuperated rapidly, as its advantageous 
position rendered it necessarily the commercial 
mart of Thrace and Thessaly. At the present time 
it contains about eighty thousand inhabitants. 

The loss of Thessalonica was a bitter sorrow to 
the Venetians. Fearing to be deprived also of the 
island of Negropont, they sent ambassadors to the 
sultan shortly after his return to Adrianople, and 
concluded with him a treaty of peace. 

In this same year ( 1413) died John Castiota, lord 
of Southern Albania. Amurat, who held the four 
sons of this prince as hostages, took possession of 
Croia and the surrounding country. Peloponnesus 
owed its safety only to a new movement on the part 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 43 

of the emir of Caramania, who lost no opportunity 
of regaining the power which had been lost by his 
ancestors. The theft of a beautiful Arabian charger, 
w r hich the prince had taken from the chief of the 
Turcomans of Soulkadr, was the frivolous pretext 
for the war. The chief complained to the sultan, 
who punished the prince by depriving him of two 
cities, and he made peace only at the entreaties of 
his sister, the wife of the emir. 

A Wallachian lord, named Wlad-Drakal, (in their 
language the Devil), a cunning and bad man, well 
deserving the name he bore, had assassinated his 
sovereign, who had just concluded a treaty of peace 
with the sultan. Amurat determined at first to 
support the claim of the legitimate heir, brother of 
the deceased prince ; but a promise made by the 
usurper to pay tribute, and acknowledge himself the 
vassal of the Porte, soon removed his scruples. The 
following year (1433) he considered it advantageous 
to preserve friendly relations w T ith the King of Hun- 
gary, and to congratulate him upon his accession to 
the throne of Germany. Sigismund received the 
ambassadors in the cathedral of Basle. The envoys 
presented him, in the name of their master, with 
twelve golden goblets filled with gold coin, and 
mantles of silk embroidered with gold and precious 
stones. 

Bulgaria had ceased to exist as an independent 
principality after the death of its last prince, during 
the reign of Bajazet; the chiefs of Servia were trib- 
utaries of the Turks, and often their efficient allies. 
The despot, Stephen V. , w 7 ho had saved Soliman at 
the battle of Angora, recommended on his deathbed 



144 TH £ I^AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the aged George Brankovich as his successor. Sum- 
moned by Amurat to surrender Servia, George pur- 
chased peace by promising the sultan his daughter 
Mara in marriage, and a portion of his States for her 
dower. In return, he obtained permission to erect a 
citadel at Semendra, on the banks of the Danube, in 
order to protect himself against Hunga^. The sul- 
tan celebrated his marriage with great magnificence. 

Early in the spring Amurat conceived a detestable 
design against his father-in-iaw, being urged to it 
by- a certain Fadulac, an uncompromising enemy of 
the Christians. This Fadulac had formerly collected 
the revenues of the Turkish empire. His great 
business capacity, and his hatred against the adorers 
of Christ, had elevated him to the dignity of vizier. 
In conversation one day with the sultan he said to 
him : "Why, my lord, do you not exterminate the 
enemies of our faith ? Instead of using the power 
placed in your hands by God according to his will,, 
you favor the infidels. This is not what God expects 
of you; he wishes your sword to destroy these 
wretches, until they become converted and embrace 
the doctrine of God and the prophet. Reflect, my 
lord, that contrary to our interests you have permit- 
ted the prince of Servia to erect a fort. If you expel 
him from it, we shall have an unobstructed road to 
Hungary. We shall thence obtain an abundance of 
gold, and having become masters of that country, we 
shall be able to crush the enemies of our faith in 
Italy." 

The sultan listened willingly to the suggestions 
of his vizier, and as the first step tow T ards the com- 
pletion of his designs, he demanded of his father-in- 



THE I, AST CMSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 45 

law the cession of the fortress of Semendra. Being 
advised to undertake hostilities against Drakal of 
Wallachia, he summoned him, as well as George, to 
present themselves at his court. Instead of obeying 
the order, George fortified Semendra more strongly, 
and appealed to Sigismund for aid. The King of 
Hungary, notwithstanding the apparent friendship 
existing between himself and Amurat, had kept up 
a secret intercourse with his enemies, and considered 
the present a favorable time for renewing the strug- 
gle with the Turks. George yielded to him his for- 
tified town of Belgrade in exchange for some cities 
in Hungary. Sigismund bore the brunt of the sul- 
tan's anger. During forty-five days the Ottoman 
army devastated the country, and carried away on 
its departure seventy thousand prisoners. The 
death of the King of Hungary saved the Turks 
from the effects of his vengeance. His three crowns 
of Hungary, Bohemia, and Germany did not de- 
scend peacefully to his son-in-law, Albert, and his 
daughter Elizabeth. In a few days a bloody con- 
test arose between the Hungarians of Buda and the 
Germans of Albert's followers. The murder of a 
Hungarian noble was avenged by the massacre of 
all foreigners, Germans, Bohemians, and Italians; 
but Albert found it necessary to pardon the crime, 
in order to preserve his crown. 

Emboldened by the death of Sigismund, the 
Turks invaded Servia. At the first advance of their 
army, George confided the defense of Semendra to 
his eldest son, Gregory, and taking with him his 
youngest son, Lazarus, he sought refuge at the 
court of the King of Hungary. The Prince of Wal- 
10 



I46 THE LAST CMSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

lachia, who either was unable to escape, or who ic- 
mained, hoping to be victorious in the conflict, was 
taken, and imprisoned in the tower of Gallipoli. He 
was afterwards released, and sent back to Wallachia, 
upon renewing his oath of fidelity, and surrendering 
his two sons as hostages. In the meantime Amurat 
had laid siege to Semendra, which fell after a vali- 
ant and skilful defense. Gregory was made pris- 
oner, had his eyes plucked out, and was transferred 
with his brother, who had been a long time held as 
a hostage at Adrianople, to the dungeons of Amasra 
and Tokat. 

The Emperor, John II. Palaeologus, fearing that 
his own empire would experience the same fate as 
Hungary and Servia, implored the assistance of the 
Latin princes against the Ottomans. He even 
revived the project of a union between the Churches, 
and contrary to the advice of his father, entertained 
the proposition of arranging with the Roman pontiff 
in a general council to be assembled beyond the 
Adriatic Sea. During the lifetime of Manuel, he 
had addressed, through the nuncio, Anthony Mas- 
san, envoy of Martin V., a letter to the Pope, testify- 
ing his desire to accomplish the union. ' ' We would 
wish," he writes, "that the union could be made at 
once ; but the nuncio is an eye-witness of our sad 
condition. We are nearly annihilated, our whole 
empire is exposed momentarily to the sword of the 
enemy, and it is not possible to assemble the bishops 
of Asia or Europe on account of the war with the 
infidels. As soon as God grants us peace, we shall 
write to you, and when we have received 3-our 
answer, we wish the council to be convoked. We 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 147 

also beg you to pronounce excommunication against 
those of your communion who preserve peace with 
the infidels, and leave us alone in the contest against 
them. They should aid us, and not permit the ves- 
sels of the Mussulmans to be manned by Chris- 
tians.' ' 

After the death of Martin V. , the Greek monarch 
sent an embassy to his successor, Eugenius IV., 
begging him to carry out the intention of his prede- 
cessor, and call a council for the purpose of consid- 
ering the union of the Greek and Latin Churches. 
The pontiff received the petition favorably, and 
promised to defray the expenses of the Greeks both 
in going to and returning from the council. Eugen- 
ius IV., having selected Ferrara as the place for the 
sessions of the council, sent money and galleys 
equipped at Venice and the isle of Candia, to convey 
the emperor and his suite to Italy. Palseologus, 
recalling the advice of Manuel, hesitated, but finally 
determined to embark. After a fatiguing voyage 
of seventy-seven days, they cast anchor before Ven- 
ice (February 8, 1438). The following day the 
doge and senators, with numerous attendants, went 
to offer their homage to Palseologus, whom they 
found seated on a rich throne placed on the deck of 
the vessel. The sea was covered with gondolas 
hung with drapery of brilliant colors, the air re- 
sounded to the ringing of bells, the music of various 
instruments and the joyous acclamations of the in- 
numerable spectators ; the vessels, bearing the united 
flags of Rome and Venice, were rich with silk and 
gold. It would be difficult to describe the astonish- 
ment of the Greek monarch and his attendants as 



148 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

they ascended the grand canal, and saw for the first 
time the most beautiful city of the Christian world. 
They contemplated with admiration its marble 
palaces arising from the midst of the w y ater, the 
hangings suspended from the Gothic windows, the 
banners floating above the doors, and the immense 
population of Venice the Superb ; but their hearts 
were saddened upon beholding the spoils formerly 
taken by the Latins from Constantinople. 

Being informed of the arrival of the emperor at 
Venice, the Pope deputed the Cardinal Sainte-Croix 
to welcome him to Italy. On the 28th of February 
Palaeologus left Venice for Ferrara, where he was 
treated with all the honors formerly accorded to the 
emperors of the East. 

The Marquis d' Este, accompanied by a number 
of cardinals and other prelates, received him outside 
the city gates. He made his entry upon a black 
horse magnificently caparisoned, whilst a white 
horse of great beauty, with crimson velvet housing 
and jewelled harness, was led before him. Over his 
head was borne a canopy supported by the children 
and nearest relatives of the Marquis. Thus he pro- 
ceeded to the palace of the Pope, who met him at 
the door of his apartment, embraced him paternally, 
and conducted him to a seat by his side. After a 
short conversation, Eugenius IV. sent him with the 
same pomp to the palace which had been prepared 
for his use, and where he was treated during his 
stay with royal magnificence. 

Three days later, the patriarch Joseph, who had 
remained at Venice, arrived with a portion of the 
metropolitans and bishops ; but the sessions of the 



THE LAST CJESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 149 

council were delayed four months in order to give 
time to the Latin princes and prelates to reach 
Ferrara. 

Palaeologus, with a number of his favorite cour- 
tiers, passed this interval in a large monastery 
agreeably situated six miles from Ferrara. Forget- 
ting in the pleasures of the chase the calamities of 
his empire, he occupied himself in destroying game. 
The plague having made its appearance in Ferrara, 
the Pope proposed to transfer the council to Flor- 
ence, which was accordingly done. It w T as in this 
city that the Greek prelates, with the exception of 
Mark of Ephesus, signed the act of union between 
the Greek and Latin Churches. The last session of 
the council was held in July, 1439, with great 
solemnity, in the Cathedral of Florence, and in it 
w T as proclaimed the decree of union, in the form of a 
bull by Eugenius IV., which was signed by the 
Pope, the emperor, and a large number of Greek and 
Latin prelate^. 

In the meantime, the patriarch Joseph had died 
suddenly, and Eugenius IV. urged the Greeks to 
elect, before their departure, a successor to the See 
of Constantinople. But the emperor and prelates 
were unwilling to accede to the proposition, saying 
that the election should necessarily take place in the 
cathedral of Saint Sophia. As the Greeks deter- 
mined upon an immediate departure, the Pope gave 
generously far more than he had pledged himself 
for defraying their expenses. On the 26th of August 
John Palseologus left Florence for Venice, in which 
city he remained some time, and embarked only in 
October upon the galleys which had been furnished 



I50 THE IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

by the Pope to convey himself and his attendants to 
Constantinople, where he arrived the 1st of Febru- 
ary, 1440. 

On landing at Byzantium, he was saluted, or 
rather assailed, b}^ the murmurs of the clergy and 
people. For two years the capital had been deprived 
of its civil and ecclesiastical rulers, and anarchy in 
every department was the consequence. Before his 
departure for Italy, the emperor had raised the 
hopes of his subjects by promises of speedy and 
powerful aid. But disappointed in their expecta- 
tion, they openly expressed their indignation, and 
broke out into bitter invectives against the prelates 
who had signed the decree of union. This outburst 
of popular feeling was not without influence over 
the prelates, and nearly all of them retracted. Mark 
of Ephesus, who had refused adhesion, was regarded 
as the sole defender of his county. 

In order to stifle the flame of religious discord, 
the emperor determined to bring about an election 
of a patriarch to supply the place of Joseph. The 
choice fell upon Metrophanes of Cyzica, who was 
consecrated in the church of Saint Sophia, and who 
took possession of the See in August. Having ac- 
complished this, the emperor, either fearing to irri- 
tate Amurat, who was jealous of the apparent good 
feeling existing between the Greeks and the Latins, 
or losing all hope of aid from the West, showed no 
further zeal in the cause, and the Greek Church re- 
mained as before, independent of the Latin Church. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HUNNIADES AND SCANDERBEG. 

Siege of Belgrade by the Ottomans— Successful defence of the city — John 
Hunniades— Defeat of the Mezidbeg— Battle of Vasag— The Otto- 
mans conquered at Missa— Hunniades enters Buda in triumph — 
Peace of Segeddin, which is violated by the Christians — Battle of 
Varna— Amurat is induced to leave his retreat in Magnesia by the 
revolt of the Janizaries— Conquest of Peloponnesus— Battle of Kos- 
sova— Flight of John Hunniades— Defection and success of Scander- 
beg— Amurat forced to raise the siege of Croi'a— Death of John II. 
Palseologus— Demetrius disputes the throne with his brother, Con- 
stantiue XII. Dragoses, emperor of Constantinople— Death of Amu- 
rat II. — Embassy of Phranza. 

Whilst meditating upon the last blow which w T as 
to be dealt against the empire of Byzantium, Amurat, 
master of Servia, and aided by the despot of Walla- 
chia, marched against the Hungarians, who, after 
the sudden death of Albert (1439), had been suffer- 
ing the horrors of a civil war. Some called to the 
throne Ladislaus, king of Poland, upon the condi- 
tion that he would many Queen Elizabeth ; others 
expoused the cause of Elizabeth, who, having no 
hope of being able to resist the Poles, had fled with 
her infant son to Austria, carrying with her the 
crown of Saint Stephen. Amurat took advantage of 
these discussions to besiege Belgrade, the outpost of 
Catholic Christendom. He confided the expedition 
to Alibeg, the son of Eurenos. On every elevated 
point in the vicinity, and on a hundred vessels on 
the Danube, he placed machines of all kinds for 
hurling stones. Hitherto, the sultan had marched 

(15O 



I52 THK IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

with rapidity towards the aim he had in view, always 
victorious, and never arrested by any obstacle which 
impeded his progress. Before Belgrade, his star 
paled for the first time. His lieutenant found a 
worthy adversary in the prior Towan of Ragusa. 
The city repulsed successfully the repeated attacks 
of the besiegers. At the end of six months the king 
of Poland sent Lenziczky as an envoy to demand of 
the sultan to withdraw from Belgrade. Amurat, 
who intended to retire, replied nevertheless with 
pride that sooner or later he would conquer the city. 
The vigorous defense of Belgrade was the pre- 
lude of the many defeats experienced by the Mus- 
sulmans at the hands of the celebrated John Hun- 
niades, known by them under the name of Yamko 
(in Turkish, echo). John Corvinus, lord of Hun- 
niades, was a magnate renowned for his courage. 
Descended from a noble family of Transylvania, he 
commanded, at the commencement of his career, 
twelve knights in the pay of the bishop of Tagrad ; 
later, he accompanied Sigismund to Italy, and 
served in the army of Philip Mary Visconti. Upon 
his return to Hungary, he received from Sigismund 
the domain of Hunniades, situated on the confines 
of Transylvania and Wallachia. He increased his 
possessions by marrying a wealthy woman of illus- 
trious birth. When Ladislaus entered Hungary he 
held the office of vaivode of Transylvania. He 
espoused the cause of this prince, who was called 
upon to defend his new kingdom against the simul- 
taneous attacks of Elizabeth and the Turks. Under 
the modest title of the "White Knight of Walla- 
chia' ' he acquired a brilliant renown. In the ex- 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 53 

cess of their admiration, the Hungarians applied tc 
him the words of the gospel : ' ' There was a man 
sent by God, whose name was John ." In the eyes of 
the Turks, the old heroes of the Crusades were re- 
vived in this man, and they surnamed him the Devil, 
They never succeeded in entering the kingdom 
which he protected, and they wept for his death, 
because they w r ould never have it in their power to 
avenge the humiliating defeats they had experienced 
in their contests with him. This Christian warrior 
had delivered Hungary from civil strife and foreign 
wars; ten times he combatted the infidels in 
pitched battles ; fourteen times he surprised and dis- 
persed their army. Defeated twice, Hunniades 
abandoned the victory only after an obstinate resist- 
ance. His brilliant exploits were a fortunate diver- 
sion for Constantinople. But for him, not only 
Hungary, but Bavaria, Germany, indeed all Chris- 
tendom, would have been subjected to the Mussul- 
man power. The King of Poland said of him, that 
he w T on the admiration of all without exciting the 
envy of any. Popes sent ambassadors to him as to 
a king. 

In 1442 Mezidbeg entered Transylvania, and in 
the name of the sultan laid siege to Hermanstadt. 
Urged to take part in the war by the despot of Ser- 
via and his son Lazarus, who had sought refuge in 
Hungary after the death of Albert, Ladislaus and 
Hunniades determined to attack the Turks. Hun- 
niades marched w r ith his brave troops to the relief 
of the besieged city, and completely routed the Otto- 
mans, who fled, leaving twenty thousand dead on 
the field of battle. The pasha and his son were 



154 THB LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

among the slain. Hunniades, who had lost only 
three thousand men, crossed the mountains, en- 
tered Wallachia, and ravaged both shores of the 
Danube. The Hungarian general was received in 
triumph by his fellow citizens, so unaccustomed 
hitherto to any success in contests with the Turks ; 
he sent to George Brankovich, as a trophy of his 
victory, a wagon so heavily laden with spoils that 
ten oxen could scarcely draw it. The heads of 
Mezidbeg and his son surmounted the whole, and 
an old Mussulman was deputed to offer the booty to 
the despot of Servia. 

To avenge this defeat, Amurat prepared a formid- 
able invasion, and ordered Sciabadin Pasha to march 
against the conqueror with the most efficient of the 
Janizaries, and an army amounting to eighty thou- 
sand men. He was also directed to punish the 
Wallachians and Moldavians, whom the White 
Knight had enticed from their alliance with the 
Ottomans. Sciabadin, in his pride, boasted that at 
the mere sight of his turban the enemy would take 
flight. Hunniades advanced to meet him with a 
force of only fifteen thousand, but all determined 
either to conquer or to die. The brave Hungarian 
answered the boasting of the pasha by a victory 
even more striking than his former triumph. Sci- 
abadin was taken prisoner with five thousand men, 
and he lost two hundred standards. Amurat's best 
officers fell on the bloody field of Vasag. The sul- 
tan, humiliated as he was by this second defeat, 
still demanded from the Hungarians either the city 
of Belgrade or the payment of tribute. John Corvin 
advised an attack upon the sultan's States- in pun- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 55 

ishment of this audacity, and Ladislaus, being also 
urged to war by the dethroned despot of Servia, was 
not unwilling to unite the Hungarian and Polish 
armies against the common enemy. 

The following year (1443) was remarkable for the 
rapidity of the successes of Hunniades. A campaign 
of five months sufficed for him to win five battles 
and obtain possession of as many cities ; the Hun- 
garians, proud of the exploits of their general, named 
it the long campaign. This was the brilliant com- 
mencement of the crusade planned by the efforts of 
Cardinal Julian, legate of Eugenius IV:, who had 
sounded the alarm against the infidels. Never, 
since the fatal battle of Nicopolis, had so many dif- 
ferent nations of Christian Europe united to combat 
the enemy of their faith. The army which crossed 
the Danube near Semendra on the 22d of July, under 
the command of Brankovich, was composed of Ger- 
mans, Poles, Wallachians, Servians and Hungarians. 
Hunniades, at the head of twelve thousand valiant 
troops, entered Servia and ravaged the country as 
far as Nissa, whilst King Ladislaus and Cardinal 
Julian followed in two days with twenty thousand 
men. On the 3d of November, 1443, the Ottoman 
and Hungarian armies met near Nissa. Mussulman 
bravery was destined to be foiled by the skilful 
plans of Hunniades. Amurat was compelled to re- 
treat precipitately beyond Mount Hemus, having 
lost two thousand men killed, nine standards, and 
four thousand made prisoners. Soon after the im- 
portant city of Sophia surrendered. 

A month later the Christian general fought an- 
other battle in the defiles of the Balkan, where his 



I56 THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

soldiers were obliged to contend not only with the 
enemy, but also to defend themselves against the 
avalanches and enormous masses of rocks and ice 
which dashed down the side of the mountain. They 
were, however, victorious, as they were in a subse- 
quent battle, the only one in which King L,adislaus 
was present. Among the prisoners who fell into the 
hands of the crusaders was Mahmoud-Tchelebi, 
brother of the grand vizier, and son-in-law of Amu- 
rat. Hunniades recrossed the Danube with his 
army and entered Buda in triumph. Eugenius IV., 
the Genoese, the Venetians, and the duke of Bur- 
gundy sent ambassadors to Ladislaus, and Corvinus 
was treated with marked honor. All urged the con- 
tinuation of the war and promised aid. John Pal- 
ceologus was also anxious for another expedition, 
hoping, by that means, to be permanently rid of the 
Turks. The despot of Servia and Cardinal Julian 
added their entreaties, each for his own particular 
interest. But the Poles opposed the undertaking in 
the most decided manner, because Poland was agi- 
tated by domestic dissensions and attacked from 
without by the Tartars. Besides, a portion of Hun- 
gary was still held by the Bohemians, who professed 
to support the cause of Ladislaus the Posthumous, 
but who desolated the northern provinces by their 
brigandage. 

As Ladislaus himself desired the war, he gave 
orders to Corvinus to make the necessary prepara- 
tions. Pope Eugenius, in concert with the Venetians 
and Genoese, assembled at Gaeta seventy galleys, the 
command of which was given to a Florentine cardi- 
nal named Francis Gondolmieri. This fleet sailed 



THE LAST C.ESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 57 

towards the Hellespont. It was destined to bar the 
passage of the Turks into Europe. The prince o* 
Caramania had, for the third time, asserted his 
freedom from Ottoman rule, and he was resisting 
successfully the forces brought against him in Asia. 
Amurat attacked without respite on all sides, and 
wearied by defeat, pardoned the rebel, and with the 
view of putting an end to the disastrous war which 
he was waging in the northwest of his empire, he 
restored Wallachia to the vaivode Drakul; returned 
to George Brankovich his two sons, whose eyes had 
been plucked out, and surrendered the forts he had 
taken from him. Next he sent an ambassador to 
Hunniades to negotiate a peace. The affair was 
referred to the diet assembled at Segeddin, and the 
diet agreed to treat with the Ottomans. A truce of 
ten years was concluded in the presence of Cardinal 
Julian, who with difficulty concealed his discontent 
(12 July, 1444). The subjects of Ladislaus and 
George, on the contrary, were overjoyed. Amurat 
agreed to restore Servia and Herzegovina to Bran- 
kovich, to leave Wallachia under the suzerainty of 
the Hungarians, and to pay seventy thousand 
ducats for the ransom of his son-in-law. The 
Turks made oath upon the Koran, the Christians 
upon the Bible. The treaty was written in the 
tw T o languages. 

In the midst of the negotiations with the Chris- 
tians, the sultan was plunged in the deepest grief 
by the news of the death of his eldest son, Alead- 
din. Amurat, who united to great military talents 
a tender affection for his children, was so keenly 
affected by this loss, that he determined to abdicate 



158 THK I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the throne. Selecting from his ministers those who 
had grown old in his service, and who were most 
able to guide his inexperienced son, then only four- 
teen years of age, he resigned in his favor and 
retired to Magnesia with a small number of favorite 
courtiers. 

But whilst the sultan thus placed the reins of gov- 
ernment in the hands of a boy, the enemies of the 
Ottoman empire were eagerly watching a favorable 
opportunity to take revenge for all the disasters in- 
flicted on them by the Mussulman arms. Scarcely 
had the truce been signed, when deputies arrived 
from the fleet of the crusaders with assurances that 
it was not possible for the army of the infidels to 
pass from Asia into Europe. They urged Ladislaus 
to act promptly. The emperor, John II. Palseolo- 
gus, fearing that the truce of Segeddin might prove 
disadvantageous to himself, solicited from the Pope, 
from the Franks and Philip of Burgundy, a new 
crusade which might efface the disgrace of Nicopo- 
lis. The Hungarians regretted having lost the op- 
portunity of driving the Turks from Europe, and 
Cardinal Julian was no less impatient to terminate 
the war against the enemies of Christ ; he therefore 
took advantage of circumstances to break the treaty. 
To secure the co-operation of George, he w T as prom- 
ised additional territory. The Poles were discon- 
tented because the Russians were at that very time 
invading Lithuania. 

The second expedition from Bulgaria commenced 
by the passage of the Danube at Orsowa. This 
time, instructed by the experience of the former 
campaign, they resolved to push on directly to Gal- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 59 

lipoli. Two roads conducted thither : one between 
Mount Hemus and the sea, longer and more secure ; 
the other through the mountains, straight, but steep 
and difficult. Ladislaus selected the former, after 
having made an unsuccessful attack upon Nicopolis. 
A" Wallachian chief, seeing the small number of men 
under his command, urged him to retreat; but Lad- 
islaus persisted in his advance, and encamped near 
Varna, a city situated on the banks of the sea. 

In consideration of the extreme danger, Amurat 
consented to leave his solitude in Magnesia ; and 
indignant at the violation of the treaty, he hastened 
from Asia, at the head of an army of forty thousand 
men. Instead of going to the Hellespont, w 7 here lay 
the fortified fleet, he landed on the shores of the Bos- 
phorus. Genoese vessels transported his troops, 
upon receiving in payment a ducat for every man. 
From Adrianople he proceeded by forced marches, 
and encamped not far from the Hungarians. Car- 
dinal Julian wished to fortify their camp, but Hun- 
niades and the despot of Servia opposed the plan, 
and they determined to give battle to the Turks. 

The eve of November 11, 1444, the troops on both 
sides placed themselves in order of battle. Hunni- 
ades directed the arrangement of the Christians. 
The contest commenced at day-dawn. Cardinal 
Julian and George Brankovich made the first attack 
upon the Turks. " They were repulsed ; but Hunni- 
ades and Ladislaus restored order, and performed 
prodigies of valor. The sultan, seeing his Janizaries 
giving way before the enemy, held up a copy of the 
treaty made with the Hungarians, and, lifting his 
eyes to heaven, prayed the God of the Christians to 



l6o THK I.AST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

punish their perjury. Ladislaus, carried away by 
his enthusiasm, rushed into the midst of the Jani- 
zaries. Surrounded by five hundred cavaliers, his 
body-guard, under the banner of Saint George, 
borne by Stephen of Bathori, he dealt death wher- 
ever he passed, and sought particularly to reach 
Amurat. But his horse was wounded in the foot by 
a lance, and fell, throwing his rider to the ground. 
An old Janizary cut off his head before he had time 
to recover himself, and placing it upon the point of 
a lance, held it aloft, crying to the enemy: "Behold 
the head of your king. ' ' 

This horrible pendant to another lance, upon 
which the sultan had suspended the treaty of Seged- 
din as a monument of Christian perfidy, dismayed 
the Hungarians, and caused their defeat. They re- 
treated precipitately, notwithstanding the efforts 
made by Hunniades to recover the body of the 
young king. The hero was himself obliged to 
yield, and recognizing the divine vengeance in the 
disaster, he retired from the field. The Hungarians 
lost two-thirds of their arm}*-, including Cardinal 
Julian, the author of their misfortunes, and Stephen 
Bathori, father of the vaivode of Transylvania. 
Thirty thousand Ottomans were slain. Two hun- 
dred and fifty wagons loaded with valuable articles 
fell into the hands of the victors. The sultan an- 
nounced his success to the sultan of Egypt, and to 
make known to him what men he had conquered, he 
sent him twenty-five breastplates taken from Hun- 
garian nobles. The head of Ladislaus was sent to 
the governor of Brusa. 

George and Hunniades recrossed the Danube with 



THK IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. l6l 

the remains of the army of the crusaders, who were 
not pursued by the Turks. Great was the grief in 
Hungary, in Poland, and throughout Christendom. 
The people mourned the death of Ladislaus, and the 
sultan erected a column on the spot where he fell ; 
but the modest inscription praised his valor, and de- 
plored his misfortune, without condemning his im- 
prudence. 

Satisfied with having saved the state, and weary 
of the throne, Amurat resigned his crown a second 
time, and retired to his charming retreat in Mag- 
nesia. But again his repose was interrupted, and 
the empire claimed his services. The Janizaries re- 
volted, and by their disorders spread terror through- 
out the city of Adrianople. The ministers of the 
young sultan decided to beg the assistance of Amu- 
rat. Sacrificing his pleasures to the wishes of his 
former subjects, this prince returned to Adrianople, 
and, for the third time, assumed the sceptre. The 
Janizaries acknowledged the voice of their master, 
and submitted at once to his authority, so great was 
the fear and respect inspired by his name. 

Once more in possession of the sovereign power, 
which he wielded until his death, Amurat turned 
his attention to the northern portion of the ancient 
empire of Byzantium in Europe, of Peloponnesus, 
and Albania. Shortly after the disaster of Varna, in 
which the L,atins alone had borne the penalty of the 
perfidy, he had renewed the truce with the emperor, 
whose states were then limited to the territory sur- 
rounding the capital, and included within the long 
wall of Anastasa. The treaty which he had signed 
did not comprehend his brothers, the despots of 
ii 



162 THK IyAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Peloponnesus. Theodore had been appointed des- 
pot of Sparta at the division of the empire between 
the sons of Manuel. He was succeeded, at his 
death, by his nephew, Theodore, son of Andronicus, 
who afterwards exchanged his dominions with his 
uncle, Constantine. This prince succeeded in ex- 
tending his sway over the whole peninsula, except- 
ing that portion belonging to his brother Thomas. 
The progress of Constantine, who was destined to 
ascend the throne of Byzantium, was materially 
aided by the long campaign of Hunniades. 

This increase of power provoked the envy and 
attacks of Amurat. His own desire, and the en- 
treaties of the beglerbey of Roumelia, and the duke 
of Athens, Neri Acciaiuoli, who had broken his 
alliance with Constantine, induced him to undertake 
an expedition against Greece. Leaving the Emperor 
of Constantinople in peace, he made a descent upon 
central Greece at the head of sixty thousand men. 
At Thebes he received the homage of the Florentine 
prince, Neri ; thence he proceeded to force the wall 
w r hich Constantine had built at the isthmus of Hex- 
amilon, and behind which he had intrenched him- 
self with his brother Thomas and all the forces of 
the Peloponnesus (1446). Corinth, being aban- 
doned by its garrison, which was engaged in the 
defense of the wall, became the prey of the barbar- 
ians and was delivered to the flames. For the fourth 
time the fortifications of the isthmus were destroyed 
and the trenches filled up. The devastation of 
Patras, the second capital of Morea, followed the 
burning of Corinth. At the approach of the Turks 
the greater part of the inhabitants had taken flight ; 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 63 

four thousand remained, and they expiated their 
blind confidence by the loss of their liberty. The 
Janizaries commenced by mining the walls of the 
citadel, which made a vigorous resistance. But the 
Greeks, pouring down streams of boiling pitch, 
forced them to withdraw, and then filled up the 
breaches and fortified themselves anew. When the 
remainder of his army arrived, the sultan raised the 
siege and concluded with Constantine a treaty, in 
virtue of which Peloponnesus was to be tributary to 
the Turks. Sixty thousand Greeks were reduced to 
slavery. Constantine as despot of Sparta, and his 
brother Thomas as despot of Achaia, were obliged 
to pay a capitation tax for all the subjects whom it 
pleased the conqueror to leave them. 

That Amurat did not consummate the ruin of the 
Greeks after the devastation of Peloponnesus, was 
due to his ignorance of the Hungarian character. 
He did not comprehend that his victories had served 
only to animate their courage, and that he would 
derive a small advantage from them and at a great 
sacrifice. Consequently, he employed his forces in 
harassing Hungary, being favored, as he supposed, 
by the difficulties surrounding Hunniades. Ap- 
pointed regent during the minority of the young 
king, Ladislaus the Posthumous, who was de- 
tained at his court by Frederic III., Hunniades 
during two years ravaged Austria, Styria and 
Carinthia ; the two following years he employed in 
contests with the Turks, and in appeasing domestic 
discords. The wisdom of his administration proved 
that he united the talents of the statesman to those 
of the warrior. Appeals made to him were attended 



164 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

to at whatever time or in whatever place they were 
presented, and his spirit of conciliation and pru- 
dence soon put an end to civil dissensions. He was 
a scourge to the Emperor of Germany, who refused 
to restore to the Hungarians their young king and 
the crown of St. Stephen, which had been placed in 
his hands by Elizabeth. In the midst of these 
various cares and duties, he did not neglect to keep 
a watchful eye upon the Turks ; by day his guards 
were ever on the alert, by night he kindled large 
fires to prevent a surprise, and thus the enemy were 
unable to cross the Danube. 

Four years after the battle of Varna, Hunniades 
resolved no longer to limit the war to defensive 
operations, but to take active measures against 
Amurat. Accordingly, he made an alliance with 
the Prince of Albania, Scanderbeg, and placed him- 
self at the head of the finest and best disciplined 
army which had yet been raised in Hungary ; it 
numbered eighty thousand men, including eight 
thousand Wallachians under Dan, who had been 
appointed vaivode in place of Drakul, and two 
thousand German and Bohemian arquebusiers. 
Hunniades crossed the Danube, in order to make a 
junction with Scanderbeg, and invaded Servia. 
Through his assistance, the Despot George Branko- 
vich recovered his principality ; but terrified b}' the 
power of the Turks, and jealous of the Hungarian 
hero, he not only refused the auxiliaries demanded 
by the Christian army, but he perfidiously betrayed 
to the sultan the plans of Hunniades. 

Upon receiving information of this invasion, 
Amurat hastened to the assistance of his ally, the 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 65 

despot, prevented the junction of the armies of 
Corvinus and Scanderbeg, and met the Hungarian 
army in the plain of Kossora, memorable for the 
victory gained fifty-nine years before by Amurat I. 
The Christians encamped there in October. The 
Ottoman army, a hundred and fifty thousand strong, 
employed three days in crossing the Stitnitza, a 
river running through the plain. Confiding too im- 
plicitly in his good fortune, Hunniades, instead of 
waiting for the arrival of the troops promised him 
by the Prince of Albania, left his camp and advanced 
to meet the enemy, near the village of Brod. Be- 
fore accepting battle, the sultan made overtures, 
hoping to come to terms, but they were rejected by 
the haughty Hunniades. 

On the eve of the 17th of October, the two armies 
took their position. For three days the skilful ar- 
rangements of the Hungarian general, his heavy 
cavalry, the universal hatred of the Turks, and the 
hope of aid from Scanderbeg, counterbalanced the 
superiority of numbers, which was fearfully dispro- 
portionate. The plain, w T hich was five miles wide, 
could not contain the solid front of the Turkish 
army. Their meals were taken on the field of 
battle. The second day victory still hung in the 
balance, when the Hungarians were betrayed by 
the Wallachians, who deserted to the Ottomans. 
They were, in consequence, forced to give way, but 
they retired in good order and gained their intrench- 
ments. Despairing of success, Hunniades left the 
camp secretly with a few officers. The following 
day the Hungarian army performed prodigies of 
valor ; but being abandoned by their chief, they dis- 



166 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

banded and were massacred. Seventeen thousand 
lay dead upon the field ; among them were many 
magnates of Hungary and the brother of Corvinus. 
Amurat' s loss amounted to thirty-four thousand; he 
ordered the greater part of the bodies to be thrown 
into the Stitnitza. 

Hunniades encountered many perils in his flight : 
two Turks seized him, but whilst they were disput- 
ing the possession of his gold cross he recovered his 
sword, killed one of his assailants, and put the other 
to flight. He afterwards fell into the hands of his 
enemy, the despot George, at Semendra. He ob- 
tained his release upon condition that his son Matt- 
hias should marry the daughter of George ; his son 
Ladislaus Corvinus, was to be retained as a hostage. 
Hunniades soon liberated his son by force of arms 
and compelled George to submission. Amurat, 
furious that the despot had not delivered the Hun- 
garian general into his hands, ordered his states to 
be invaded. Corvinus surprised the Turkish army 
and completely routed it. From this time until his 
death, Amurat left Hungary in peace. Hunniades' 
entire attention was given to the affairs of his own 
kingdom and of Austria, until he gained his most 
renowned, but also his last victory over the Otto- 
mans, at the famous siege of Belgrade. The defeats 
of Varna and Kossora only temporarily obscured 
the glory which the hero had acquired in his com- 
bats with the infidels. The too great confidence 
inspired by his former success was, no doubt, the 
cause of the reverses he experienced. 

A contemporary of John Hunniades, his rival in 
glory, great in his struggles against the -Ottoman 



THE I, AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 67 

power, and in the heroic defence of his country, now 
appears in the arena. A generous athlete for the 
freedom of his country, he demands our attention 
by occupying the Mussulman armies in such a 
manner as to delay the ruin of the Greek empire. 
George Castriot, the youngest son of John Cas- 
triot, prince of Albania and tributary to Amurat, 
had been left, as we have said, a hostage with his 
three brothers in the hands of his suzerain. The 
latter mingled without distinction amid the throng 
of slaves on duty in the palace, and died young. 
George, left alone, attracted the attention and won 
the affection of the sultan by his uncommon intel- 
lect, his firm character, and fine appearance ; he was 
educated in the religion of Mahomet. He surpassed 
all his companions in his skill, strength and cour- 
age, which rendered him, at eighteen years of age, 
the most redoubtable warrior in the army. With 
one blow he cleft the head of a bull; he had 
leaped alone within the walls of a besiged city. 
Three successive victories, over a Tartar and two 
Persians who had challenged the Ottoman warriors, 
gained him the favor of Amurat, the surname of 
Scanderbeg (prince Alexander), the title and rank of 
sanjakbeg, the command of five thousand horse, and 
opened to him the way to the highest dignities in 
the empire. But upon the death of John Castriot, 
the sultan, instead of restoring to Scanderbeg the 
principality of Albania, where his father had reigned, 
appointed a governor, and was particular in keep- 
ing the young prince always engaged in war. 
Wounded by the injustice, and burning with the 
desire of breaking his chains, Scanderbeg resolved 



1 68 THE LAST OESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

to avenge himself upon the first favorable opportun- 
ity. Therefore, when the Turks were beaten by 
Hunniades near Nissa, during the long campaign, 
George Castriot, then twenty-nine years of age, 
deserted the flag of Amurat. In the confusion of 
the defeat, dagger in hand, he forced the reis-effendi, 
or principal secretary, to deliver to him a firman, 
ordering the governor of Croia to resign the com- 
mand of the place to the bearer of the message, as 
his successor. Lest too prompt a discovery might 
prevent the accomplishment of his designs, he 
stabbed the innocent accomplice of his artifice, and 
made his escape with his nephew, Hamsa (1443). 

Seven days after leaving the Turkish army, Cas- 
triot, in virtue of the order signed by the reis- 
effendi, obtained possession of Croi'a, introduced 
during the night six hundred men who had joined 
him during his flight, and massacred the sleeping 
garrison. Complete success having thus crowned 
his bold stratagem, Scanderbeg publicly renounced 
the prophet and the sultan, proclaimed himself the 
avenger of his nation and his family, and called 
upon the people to combat for their liberty. His 
relatives possessed many cities in Epirus; they 
hastened to join his standard, and to concert with 
the successful Scanderbeg the means of throwing off 
the yoke of the Ottomans. The names of religion 
and liberty caused a general revolt; Petrella, Pe- 
tralba and Stelusia acknowledged the new master 
of Epirus, and he soon recovered the whole of his 
paternal inheritance. The princes of the neighbor- 
ing states united with him, and in an assembly of 
all the states of Epirus, he was chosen generalissimo 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 69 

to conduct the war against the Turks; the allies 
pledged themselves to furnish their contingent of 
men and money, and the brave Albanians swore to 
live and die with their hereditary prince. Affable 
in his manners, severe in military discipline, the 
soldier of Christ banished vice from his camp, and 
maintained his authority over his intrepid compan- 
ions by giving a good example. Under the guid- 
ance of such a chief, the Albanians believed them- 
selves invincible, and they inspired their enemies 
with the most exalted idea of their valor. Attracted 
by his fame, the bravest adventurers of France and 
Germany ranged themselves under the banner of 
Scanderbeg, in order to share his perils and his 
glory. Eight thousand cavalry and seven thousand 
infantry composed the regular army of the hero of 
Albania who, for twenty-three years, resisted with 
this small force the whole power of the Ottoman 
empire, and the efforts of two dreaded sultans, Amu- 
rat II. and his son. 

Having by his address and courage regained the 
states of his father, and celebrated the baptism of 
his nephew, Hamsa, who was as eager as himself to 
defend the faith of his ancestors, Scanderbeg, ever 
active and watchful, collected his forces and en- 
camped near Cro'ia, which was admirably defended 
by its position on a rock and by its strong walls, 
and which possessed large stores of ammunition 
Here he awaited the Turkish general, Ali Pasha, 
who had been sent against him with forty thousand 
men. The skilful disposition of his troops gave 
him great advantage, as they were able from the 
steep rocks over which they were distributed to mow 



170 THE IyAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

down the enemy with artillery, the latter being 
crowded in a kind of valley encircled by the chain 
of mountains. According to the account given by 
Barletius, twenty-two thousand Turks fell in this 
first engagement, two thousand were made prison- 
ers, and twenty-four standards were captured, whilst 
the victors lost only one hundred men (1443). 

The abdication of Amurat after the campaign of 
Hungary procured a short repose for Scanderbeg; 
but new combats soon presented him with new 
fields for acquiring glory. He successively defeated 
Firouz-Pacha and Mustapha-Pasha, drove them 
from Epirus, and laid siege to Dai'na, a fortress of 
which the Venetians had taken possession. The 
approach of an Ottoman army, however, obliged 
Scanderbeg to raise the siege and make peace with 
Venice. Mustapha did not succeed in effacing the 
disgrace of his first defeat; conquered a second time, 
he left ten thousand dead on the field, and was made 
prisoner with ten Turkish officers of distinction; the 
sultan ransomed them for twenty-five thousand du- 
cats. 

To avenge these humiliating defeats of his gen- 
erals, Amurat resolved to conduct the army in per- 
son. More than a hundred thousand men advanced 
under his command to conquer Sfetigrad and Dibra 
(1449). On the 14th of May he appeared before the 
former of these cities; it was forced to capitulate, 
notwithstanding the heroic courage of Scanderbeg, 
who unceasingly harassed the besiegers, and who 
killed Firouz-Pasha with his own hand. Dibra was 
defended with admirable constancy by its com- 
mander. Parlat but it was conquered by an artifice 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 171 

and the superstitious scruples of the inhabitants : a 
dead dog was thrown into the only well in the city, 
and the people refused to drink the water. In this 
campaign, Amurat lost more than twenty thousand 
men of his best troops. After the departure of the 
Turks, Scanderbeg besieged Sfetigrad for a month, 
but without success. 

In the spring of the following year, Amurat re- 
turned to besiege Croia in person. Scanderbeg 
placed the women and children with his allies, the 
Venetians. Yielding to the superior numbers of the 
enemy, he retreated to the Tumenistos, an inacces- 
sible mountain about a mile from the capital. The 
sultan located his camp in the plain of Tyana, and 
appeared before the walls the latter part of April. 
The faithful Uracontes had been appointed to the 
command of the city; Amurat, having in vain tried 
to win him over, ordered several cannon to be cast ; 
in a fortnight he had ten, four of which threw im- 
mense masses of rock, and the other six, stones of a 
less size. Scanderbeg allowed the Ottoman artil- 
lery to batter down a portion of the wall, and he 
met the assault with the close ranks of the Alban- 
ians, which formed an impenetrable rampart. Sev- 
eral times during the siege, the indefatigable war- 
rior, emerging during the night from the gorges 
of the mountains, surprised the enemy buried in 
sleep> and made a frightful carnage. On one oc- 
casion eight thousand Turks were slain. The be- 
sieged, under the command of their governor, Ura- 
contes, made frequent sorties, spread terror among 
the Janizaries, and added to the disorder occasioned 
by the nocturnal expeditions of their prince. At 



172 THE LAST C^SSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

last, tired of these inglorious skirmishes, which were 
daily weakening his army, Amurat sent an ambas- 
sador to Scanderbeg, offering him the investiture of 
the revolted provinces, provided he would acknowl- 
edge himself a vassal of the sultan, and would agree 
to pay a tribute of five or ten thousand ducats. The 
ambassador, Youssouf, accompanied by some of the 
inhabitants of Dibra, vainly sought the Albanian 
chief, for two days, on the Tumenistos and the 
banks of the Ismos; at last he found him in the Red 
Camp, about an hour's journey from the river. 
Scanderbeg rejected the proposition of the sultan, 
who, being compelled to raise the siege, retired ill 
and humiliated towards Adrianople. Before reach- 
ing his destination, he suffered many losses in the 
defiles of the mountains, being constantly harassed 
by an almost invisible enemy. The Ottoman troops 
entered their winter quarters with the shame of hav- 
ing been constantly vanquished by an army far less 
numerous than their own, but composed of people 
determined to die free and faithful to the religion of 
Christ. 

During the winter which passed between the sur- 
render of Sfetigrad and the siege of Cori'a, John 
Palseologus died, leaving the Greek Church in a 
state of agitation, and his empire in a deplorable 
condition: the Turkish power was formidable, his 
subjects extremely weak, and his family were di- 
vided by a fatal discord (1449). The death of An- 
dronicus and the monastic profession of Isidore, had 
reduced the royal family to the three sons of Manuel, 
Constautine, Demetrius and Thomas. As the last 
sovereign left no children, the throne belonged to 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. J 73 

Constantine, who was in the Morea with Thomas. 
Demetrius, possessed of the domain of Selymbria, 
was in the vicinity of the capital, at the head of 
numerous partisans. The ambition of this prince 
did not abate in view of the calamities which men- 
aced the empire. The obsequies of John Palseolo- 
gus were performed with extraordinary and suspi- 
cious precipitation. In order to justify his preten- 
sions to the crow T n, Demetrius observed that he was 
the eldest son born after his father ascended the 
throne. But the senate and soldiers, the empress 
mother, and the despot Thomas, the clergy and the 
people, unanimously maintained the right of the 
legitimate successor, Constantine Dragoses, a mild 
and just prince, possessed of a great and noble soul, 
and deficient neither in talents nor courage. 

Amurat had the gratification of fixing the order 
of succession to the throne, as if he were the arbiter 
of the empire. The grand-chamberlain, Phranza, 
was sent to Adrianople in quality of ambassador. 
The sultan received w T ith benignity the petition of 
Phranza, dismissed him with valuable gifts, and 
confirming the choice of the majority of the Greeks, 
he secured to the legitimate heir that sceptre which 
his own son was soon to break in the hands of 
the last of the Palaeologi. Constantine XII w r as 
crowned by two illustrious deputies, in the ancient 
city of Lycurgus and Leonidas. The new emperor 
left Morea in the spring, and entered his capital 
amid the acclamations of his subjects. He celebra- 
ted his accession with brilliant festivals, and his 
largesses exhausted the treasury. Pardoning the 
ambition of his brother Demetrius, he bestowed 
upon him and Thomas his states of Peloponnesus. 



174 TH ^ I, AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Towards the end of 1450 Atnurat celebrated at 
Adrianople the marriage of his son Mahomet with 
the daughter of a Turcoman prince. Soon after the 
departure of the prince to Magnesia, of which he 
was governor, the sultan was struck with apoplexy 
at a banquet (1451). During his long reign he had 
been just to his subjects and firm. Even the Greeks 
acknowledged that he faithfully kept his word, that 
he was moderate in prosperity, and that he never 
refused peace to the vanquished who asked it. 

In the meantime the new emperor was occupied 
with the choice of a wife. The daughter of the doge 
of Venice was proposed to him ; but how could an 
hereditary monarch, the successor of the Roman 
Caesars, from an alliance with the daughter of an 
elective magistrate? The difference in rank was 
too great; such, at least, was the opinion of the 
Byzantine nobles. Next, Constantine hesitated be- 
tween the royal families of Georgia and Trebizond; 
and the care of concluding this important affair was 
intrusted to the grand-chamberlain, Phranza. This 
officer left Constantinople empowered to act for the 
emperor and surrounded by all the pomp which 
became his high mission. The suite of the envoy 
was composed of nobles, guards, monks, physicians 
and musicians. Who could imagine that in the 
midst of the disorders of the Greek empire, this 
embassy was prolonged for two years? And yet 
Phranza asserts it as a fact. 

Having arrived in Georgia, a country covered 
with ramifications of the Caucasus and filled with 
fertile and charming valleys, the Greeks were sur- 
prised to see the inhabitants of the cities and villages 



THE LAST CJESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 75 

collect around them, and express the greatest de- 
light upon hearing the harmonious sounds of the 
instruments, without knowing how they were pro- 
duced. From this hospitable land, where the am- 
bassador had been received with all the honor due 
his rank, he went to Trebizond ; John IV. was then 
on the throne. Here he learned the recent death of 
the Ottoman sovereign. He was much grieved, for 
he clearly foresaw that Mahomet II,, young and 
ambitious, would not long adhere to the peace policy 
adopted by his father. After the death of Amurat, 
his widow Mary, a Christian, daughter of George, 
despot of Servia, had been loaded with honors and 
presents and permitted to return to her family. In 
consequence of Mary's reputation for merit and 
beauty, Phranza considered her the most suitable 
choice for the emperor, his master, although she 
was nearly fifty years of age. Constantine listened 
to the proposition transmitted him by Phranza ; but 
his intentions were opposed by court factions, and 
Mary herself rendered the union impossible by 
bidding an irrevocable adieu to the world and re- 
tiring to a cloister. Phranza then gave the pre- 
ference, to the princess of Georgia, whose father 
dazzled by so glorious an alliance, offered, contrary 
to the ancient custom of his nation, a dowry of fifty- 
six thousand ducats, besides an annual pension of 
five thousand, and a liberal recompense to the em- 
peror's ambassador. Upon the return of Phranza, 
Constantine ratified the treaty and gave assurances 
to the deputies from Georgia, that in the spring he 
would send galleys to convey the future empress to 
Constantinople. Preparations were made during 



176 THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM 

the winter for the embassy, but the young princess 
never saw her intended husband; all these projects 
were buried under the ruins of the empire. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PREPARATIONS FOR THE SIEGE OF CONSTANTINO- 
PLE — CONSTERNATION OF THE GREEKS. 

The sultan Mahomet II. — His character — Mahomet confims the peace 
with the ambassadors of Constantine — Hostile intentions of the sul- 
tan — He constructs a fortress on the Bosphorus — Embassy from 
Constantine to Mahomet — Reply of the sultan— Energy of the em- 
peror — Commencement of hostilities— Devastation of Peloponnesus 
— Orban, a caster of cannons, deserts to the Turks — Constantine in 
vain implores aid from the West — State of Europe— Provisions 
carried to Constantinople— Picture of Constantinople. 

The conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans 
was one of the most memorable events of the XV. 
Century : the fall of the throne of the Greek emper- 
ors after a duration of eleven hundred years, and the 
establishment of the Turkish empire on the soil of 
Europe, were circumstances too important not to 
exert a powerful influence over Christian nations. 
Therefore, the sultan who dealt the final blow 
against the ancient Byzantium, has obtained a 
celebrity in history surpassing that of any other 
sovereign of his dynasty. 

Three days after the death of Amurat, his son 
Mahomet, who was at Magnesia, was informed of it 
by a courier dispatched for the purpose by Khalil- 
Pasha. Mahomet, then twenty-one years of age, 
eagerly replaced upon his brow the crown which his 
father had twice in his life-time resigned to him. 
No sooner had he received the news, than springing 
upon an Arabian charger, he exclaimed: "Let 
12 (177) 



178 TH£ LAST Cy^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

those who love me follow me ! " He reached Galli- 
poli in two days, remained there two da}^s to give 
his attendants time to precede him and notify the 
inhabitants of Adrionople of his arrival. The viziers 
and emirs, the imans and cadis, the soldiers, and the 
greater part of the people, met their new master out- 
side the city. Having paid with all the nobles the 
last duties to his father, he admitted them to kiss 
his hand. The following day he took formal pos- 
session of the throne, in presence of the viziers and 
high officers of the empire. Ishak-Pasha and the 
grand vizier, Khald, remained at some distance. 
The latter, by w T hose advice Amurat had twice re- 
sumed the crown, had no reason to anticipate any 
cordiality from the young sultan. Mahomet con- 
firmed him in his dignity. Ishak-Pasha, as gover- 
nor of Anatolia, was charged with conveying the 
body of Amurat to Brusa. 

Mahomet, who conceived from his contemporaries 
the surname of Conqueror, which title has been con- 
firmed to him by posterity, had a full face, a thick 
beard and dark complexion; he was very robust, 
and able to support the fatigues of war, in which he 
was engaged during his whole life. He handled 
arms with uncommon dexterity. He was of a fiery 
temperament; he had a bright, penetrating mind, 
was subtle and crafty. This bold, energetic prince, 
insatiable in his thirst for glory, was not indebted 
for his conquests solely to his courage, great as it 
was ; his prudence and his policy were equal to his 
valor. He spoke five languages, Arabian, Persian, 
Chaldaic, I^atin and Greek. He had studied with 
success mathematics, astronomy and military tac- 



THK I^AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 79 

tics. History and geography were familiar to him ; 
his emulation was aroused by reading the life and 
actions of the great men of antiquity. He encour- 
aged science and arts, and he himself cultivated 
poetry and letters. But nothing could compensate 
for his contempt of all religion, his deliberate 
cruelty, the corruption of his heart, the ambition 
and love of pomp and pleasure which influenced all 
his actions, his disregard for his plighted word, his 
violation of treaties confirmed by the most solemn 
oaths, his licentiousness and excesses of every kind, 
but above all the fratricide by which he disgraced 
the commencement of his reign. 

Ambassadors from Asia and Europe were promptly 
sent to Adrianople to congratulate the successor of 
Amurat II. upon his accession to the throne, and to 
solicit his friendship. Among them were the envoys 
of Constantine Drogoses and his brother, Demetrius, 
despot of Peloponnesus. Mahomet received them 
in the most gracious manner, expressed himself in 
moderate terms, and swore that, like his father, he 
w T ould maintain peace. The sultan endeavored par- 
ticularly to inspire with confidence the ambassador 
of the Greek emperor by flattering assurances, and 
by the solemn promise to consecrate the revenues of 
a rich domain lying on the banks of the Strymon to 
the payment of the annual pension for the support 
of Orkhan, whom the policy of the Palseologi re- 
tained a prisoner at Constantinople. 

Notwithstanding these friendly assurances, Pope 
Nicholas V. foresaw 7 what the religion of Christ 
would have to suffer from Mahomet ; moved by the 
danger which menaced the greater part of the 



l8o THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Christian states, and particularly the Byzantine 
empire, he exhorted the sovereigns of Europe to 
aid the Greeks, and he endeavored to excite the 
zeal of the people. For this purpose he sent Cardi- 
nal Casa to Germany with the title of legate, with 
instructions to effect a firm peace between the 
princes, and to request the faithful to assist by their 
alms those who were exposed to the attacks of the 
Turks. At the same time he wrote to Constantine, 
informing him of the disposition of the L,atins to 
aid him in the coming struggle. 

In the meantime, Mahomet, having renewed an 
alliance with the envoys from Wallachia, Genoa, 
Galata, Chios, Mitylene, and the knights of Rhodes, 
and concluded a truce of three years with John 
Hunniades, marched in person against the prince of 
Caramania, who, in the hope of recovering the pro- 
vinces of which he had been despoiled, had just 
revolted. But his attempt proved abortive, and in 
pledge of his submission, Ibrahim offered the hand 
of his daughter to the sultan. Mahomet accepted 
the proposition, being eager to execute the design 
he secretly meditated of conquering Constantinople. 

An imprudent and unseasonable demand made by 
the Greek emperor furnished the son of Amurat 
with a pretext for the fatal rupture. During the 
campaign of Caramania, his ambassadors presented 
themselves in the Turkish camp, and complained, in 
the name of their sovereign, of the non-payment of 
the pension due for Orkhan ; they most indiscreetly 
added a menace to liberate the prince and support 
his pretensions to the throne, if double the amount 
of the sum agreed upon were not paid immediately. 



THE LAST C.BSARS OF BYZANTIUM. l8l 

The grand vizier, Khalil, who was friendly to the 
Greeks, was, however, compelled to communicate to 
them his master's sentiments. " Foolish and miser- 
able Romans," he said to them, "I have long pene- 
trated your artifices and your crafty devices; our 
late supreme lord, Amurat II., a man of upright 
conscience and mild disposition, entertained the 
kindest feelings towards you ; but the case is differ- 
ent with my present master, who is arrested in his 
designs by no obstacle. Should Constantinople es- 
cape his grasp, I shall believe that divine mercy 
defers for a time the chastisement of your intrigues 
and subterfuges. Madmen that you are ! Scarcely 
is the treaty signed, when you come to Asia to ter- 
rify us with silly phantoms. We are not weak 
children, without experience. If you have the 
power to do aught against us, use it at once ; release 
Orkhan, proclaim him sovereign of Thrace, call the 
Hungarians to your aid, recover from us the pro- 
vinces we took from you long ago. But know that 
your plans will not succeed ; you but provoke and 
precipitate your ruin. I shall inform my master of 
all that has passed, and he will order what seems 
best to him." 

These terrible words of the vizier dismayed the 
ambassadors; but the sultan, although indignant at 
their audacity, still acted deceitfully, as the libera- 
tion of Orkhan might excite civil war in his empire. 
He reassured the Greeks by a cordial reception and 
expressions of good feeling, promising them to ex- 
amine the case and do them justice as soon as he 
returned to Adrianople. But when he had crossed 
the Hellespont and entered Gallipoli, he expelled 



1 82 THE IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the Greeks from all the towns and villages on the 
Strymon, whence the revenues were derived for the 
payment of Orkhan's pension. He thus proclaimed 
his hostile intentions, and prepared to make the em- 
peror expiate his imprudent menaces. A second 
order issued by the young sultan threatened, or 
even commenced, the siege of Byzantium. 

Bajazet-Ilderim had constructed a fortress on the 
Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. Mahomet con- 
ceived the design of elevating another directly op- 
posite, on the European shore, thus securing to 
himself the command of the straits. Early in the 
winter he published throughout his empire an edict 
commanding a thousand masons and carpenters, 
with a sufficient number of lime-burners and hod- 
men, to repair in the spring to a place called Aso- 
maton, not far from Constantinople, where he also 
ordered materials for the work to be forwarded. 
Upon receiving this news, the Christians of Asia, 
Thrace and the Islands were filled with the deepest 
sorrow, and in their sad forebodings they exclaimed: 
"The destruction of the city is nigh at hand; 
already we perceive the fatal signs of the ruin of the 
nation; the days of Antichrist are upon us! What 
shall we do ? What will become of us ? Rather let 
us die, O Lord, than see the sack of our city! " 

Constantine Dragoses, justly alarmed, hastened 
to send ambassadors to the sultan, not to claim, as 
on the former occasion, the promised pension, but 
to dissuade him from the execution of his design. 
Being admitted to Mahomet's presence, they repre- 
sented to him that his grandfather had begged of 
the emperor, Manuel, with the submission of a son 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 83 

to a father, the permission to build a fort on his 
own territory; and that the double fortification 
which he contemplated, and which would render 
the Turks masters of the Straits, could onty have 
for its object an interruption of the alliance between 
the two nations ; it would, moreover, interfere with 
the commerce of the Latins in the Black Sea, de- 
prive Constantinople of the advantages to be de- 
rived from this, and perhaps even reduce the city to 
starvation. He begged the sultan, accordingly, to 
renounce the project and accept a tribute, promising 
to preserve for him a friendship as constant and in- 
violable as that which the Greeks had entertained 
towards his father. 

11 I am planning no enterprise against your city," 
replied the perfidious Mahomet, ' ' but the walls 
which surround it form the limit of your empire. 
If I choose to construct a fort, have you a right to 
oppose me? Both shores belong to me: the Asiatic 
shore, because it is in the possession of the Mussul- 
mans; the European, because the Christians are un- 
able to defend it. Do you remember the danger 
incurred by my father when the Hungarian allies 
of the emperor were marching towards Thrace, and 
when the passage of the Hellespont was closed 
against him? He was compelled to force his way 
through the Bosphorus; but your means of injuring 
him did not correspond to your ill-will. I was then 
a child, and I remained at Adrianople, expecting 
the arrival of the Hungarians, who were ravaging 
the environs of Varna; the Mussulmans trembled, 
plunged in affliction, and the gabours (infidels), in 
the midst of prosperity and joy, laughed at their 



184 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

misfortunes. Amurat, my father, victor in the 
battle of Varna, made a vow to construct on the 
Bosphorus, on this very spot, a fortress opposite the 
one on the Asiatic shore. I will fulfil this vow, with 
the help of God. What right have you to prevent 
me from doing as I please on my own territory? 
Return to your homes, and say to your master that 
the present sovereign cannot compare with his pre- 
decessors; let him execute quickly what they were 
unable to do. If another envoy present himself as 
the bearer of similar messages, he shall be flayed 
alive. " 

When the ambassadors related at Constantinople 
the answer of the sultan, the city was in consterna- 
tion. Constantine wished to take up arms at once, 
and prevent the Ottomans from establishing them- 
selves on the Bosphorus. He was dissuaded from 
this course by the council of his ministers, who 
influenced him to adopt a less noble plan. They 
induced him to prove his patience by suffering addi- 
tional injuries, to throw upon the Turks the crime 
of being the aggressors, to rely upon time and his 
good fortune for their defence, and for the destruc- 
tion of a fortress of which the sultan could not long 
hold possession, standing, as it would, at the gates 
of a large and populous capital. Thus the winter 
passed ; credulous men cherished vain hopes, men 
of wisdom entertained fears which proved but too 
well founded. The Greeks slept tranquilly on the 
edge of the abyss which was already gaping at their 
feet, until the return of spring and the approach of 
their dreaded enemy announced to them their de- 
struction. 



THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 85 

Towards the end of March, 1452, all the materials 
necessary for the construction of the fortress were 
carried, by sea and land, from Europe and Asia to 
the appointed place. The lime had been prepared 
in Cataphrygia ; the forests of Nicomedia and Hera- 
clea furnished the wood, and the stone was sent from 
the quarries of Anatolia. At the same time the 
plain of Asomaton was covered with workmen. 
Two laborers aided each of the thousand masons, of 
whom was required a certain daily amount of work. 
The sultan had adopted in the plan of the fort the 
whimsical idea of making it resemble, in form, the 
Arabian letters composing the name of Mahomet. 
Thus it rested on three towers ; two near each other 
at the foot of the promontory, anciently called Her- 
mczum Promontorium ; and the third immediately 
on the sea. The walls were twenty-five feet thick ; 
the towers were thirty in diameter. The whole 
edifice was covered with lead. Mahomet directed 
in person a portion of the work, and his three viz- 
iers, charged with superintending the rest, gave at- 
tention particularly to the towers. Animated by the 
presence of the sultan, the Ottomans displayed in- 
credible ardor ; men of all classes, even the highest 
dignitaries, mingled with the w r orkmen and carried 
stones, mortar and bricks. In addition to the ma- 
terials sent from Asia, the Mussulmans used the 
remains of several churches situated on the Bos- 
phorus, among others the marble columns of the 
magnificent church dedicated to St. Michael, the 
archangel. 

Terrified at the progress of a work which he was 
now powerless to arrest, the Greek emperor passed 



1 86 THK LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

from useless threats to humble supplications. He 
sent an embassy to Mahomet, requesting a Turkish 
guard to protect the fields and harvests of his sub- 
jects dispersed throughout the valleys of the Bos- 
phorus, and he daily sent him for his table costly 
wines and delicate viands. But neither the en- 
treaties nor the attentions of Constantine appeased 
his implacable enemy. On the contrary, the sultan 
ordered horses and mules to be pastured on the 
lands of the Greeks, and directed any attack made 
by the natives to be repelled by force. The son of 
Isfendiar, son-in-law of the sultan, turned his horses 
to pasture in a field of ripe grain near Epibaton (now 
Birados). The injury inflicted on them irritated the 
Greeks, who undertook to drive out the animals. 
A Turkish groom struck a Greek ; the relatives of 
the latter undertook to avenge the insult ; the par- 
ties came to blows, and several individuals on both 
sides were killed in the affray. 

An account of the affair was laid before Mahomet 
by one of his ministers. The ferocious Ottoman re- 
ceived the intelligence with joy, and sent a detach- 
ment to exterminate the inhabitants of Epibaton. 
The Turks surprised the harvesters, who, having 
taken no part in the broil, were working without 
fear, and massacred forty (June, 1452). This act of 
hostility was the signal for the last war of the By- 
zantine empire. At the first alarm the emperor 
ordered the gates of Constantinople to be closed, and 
arrested all the Turks w T ho had been attracted to 
Constantinople either by curiosity or for commercial 
purposes. Among the number were several pages 
of the sultan, who were so convinced of the inflexi- 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 87 

ble rigor of their master that they begged as a favor 
to be beheaded, if they were not permitted to return 
to the camp before sunset. Constantine gave them 
their liberty at once, and three days afterwards re- 
leased the other prisoners. Despairing of averting 
the storm, he prepared for combat, and the last mes- 
sage of the heir of the Caesars to Mahomet evinced 
the firm resignation of a Christian and a soldier. 
"Since neither the sanctity of your oath, nor the 
faith of treaties, nor forbearance pn our part, can in- 
spire you with sentiments of peace," he said to the 
sultan, " proceed in your hostile purposes. My con- 
fidence is in God alone ; if it pleases Him to soften 
your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; if 
it be His will to deliver Constantinople into your 
hands, no one can prevent it, and I shall submit 
without a murmur to His decrees. The gates of the 
city shall remain closed, and until the Judge of 
princes decides between us, I will defend my people 
as long as I have the power to do so." 

Far from seeking to justify his conduct, Mahomet 
immediately declared war. For six months Con- 
stantine had foreseen what would inevitably happen, 
and he had reinforced the garrison of his capital, 
and collected supplies. About this time the fort on 
the Bosphorus was completed. As it was placed at 
the narrowest part of the channel, and it cut off, as 
it were, the passage from every vessel, the sultan 
named it Bohgaz-Kecen (cut-throat). He confided 
the command to Firouz-Aga, who had four hundred 
Janizaries under his orders, directing him to levy a 
tribute on every vessel which should pass within 
range of his batteries. In order to enable him. to 



1 88 THK LAST C^tSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

carry out this project, enormous cannons were placed 
upon the tower of Khalil, which was nearest the sea. 
On the 28th of August Mahomet left the fort, exam- 
ined the trenches of Constantinople, and returned to 
Adrianople on September 1st, 1452. 

Before commencing operations, it was necessary 
to prevent the despots, Demetrius and Thomas, who 
reigned in Peloponnesus, from sending aid to their 
brother. To accomplish this, the sultan sent, early 
in the autumn, an Ottoman army to the peninsula to 
engage the forces of these princes. It was com- 
manded by Tourakhan, who had grown old in the 
work of ravaging these countries. His two sons, 
Ahmed and Omar, accompanied him ; they crossed 
the isthmus of Corinth, entered Arcadia, pushed on 
as far as Mount Ithone, leaving a mass of ruins be- 
hind them, and taking possession of several cities. 
One division was sent in the direction of L,eontari, 
under the command of Ahmed ; but it was surprised 
by the Greeks, and cut to pieces ; the son of Tour- 
akhan was made prisoner, and sent to the despot 
Demetrius at Sparta. 

Whilst his lieutenant was devastating Peloponne- 
sus, Mahomet was making his preparations for the 
siege of Constantinople. Whilst the work upon the 
castle of the Bosphorus was in progress, a Hungar- 
ian or Dane named Orban, a caster of cannons, who 
scarcely obtained a subsistence from the Greeks, 
passed over to the Turks, and offered them the aid 
of his art. The sultan received him kindly, made 
him many presents, and assigned him so large a 
salary that, had the emperor granted him one-fourth 
of the amount, he would never have left Constanti- 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 89 

nople. Mahomet was satisfied of his ability at the 
very first question he put him. ' ' Can you cast me 
a cannon powerful enough to beat down the walls of 
Constantinople ?" "I know," replied Orban, "the 
strength and thickness of the walls ; but if they were 
as solid as those of Babylon, I could cast you a can- 
non which would reduce them to powder. I am 
certain of all that depends upon my art ; but I am 
not able to determine what will be the range of my 
piece." "Make me a cannon," said the sultan; 
11 later we can decide upon the range." 

According to the orders of Mahomet, a foundry 
was established at Adrianople, the metal was pre- 
pared, and Orban began his work. In three months 
he furnished a model of enormous size, which was 
placed on the tower of the new fort commanding 
the sea. The ship of the Venetian captain Ricci, 
who wished to pass without lowering his flag, fur- 
nished the opportunity of testing its power ; the 
first shot reached the vessel and sunk it instantane- 
ously. Ricci and thirty sailors escaped in a boat, 
which was driven by the current upon the European 
shore, and they fell into the hands of the garrison 
of the castle. The prisoners were conducted in 
chains to the sultan. He ordered the sailors to be 
beheaded, the captain to be impaled, and all to be 
left unburied. 

Satisfied with Orban's skill and the success of the 
trial, Mahomet ordered a colossal cannon double 
the size of the first. Sixty oxen were required to 
move this immense mass, and seven hundred men 
to work it. On his return to Adrianople, the em- 
peror wished to test its power. The cannon was 



I90 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

drawn in front of the palace recently constructed ; 
Orban selected the stone and measured the powder. 
It was loaded with great difficulty. In order to 
prevent the consequences which might result from 
the terror of the people, the time when this mon- 
strous piece of artillery would be used was an- 
nounced by proclamation. At the given signal, a 
thick black smoke enveloped the whole city ; a ter- 
rible explosion followed, which was felt or heard to 
a great distance. The ball buried itself to a con- 
siderable depth into the earth a mile distant. This 
new experiment increased the enthusiasm of the 
Ottomans, and added to the sad presentiments of 
the Byzantines. 

From that day but one thought occupied the mind 
of Mahomet — the conquest of Constantinople. He 
dreamed of it by night, and meditated by day upon 
the means of making himself master of the city. In 
the evening, when it was dark, he often walked 
through the city, accompanied by two confidential 
friends, in order to listen to the conversation of the 
people and soldiers. If any one, on meeting him, 
unfortunately addressed him with the usual saluta- 
tion : ' * Long live the sultan ! ' ' Mahomet imme- 
diately stabbed him to the heart with his own hand. 
Once he arose about the second watch of the night, 
and sent his guards to call unexpectedly his first 
vizier. The message, the hour, the character of the 
prince, the remembrance of the past and his affection 
for the Christians, which was so well known that he 
was called Gabour-Ortachi, or foster-brother of the 
infidels, all alarmed the conscience of Khalil-Pasha. 
He thought himself lost ; he embraced his wife and 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 191 

children, whom he feared he would never see again, 
provided himself with a cup filled with gold pieces, 
and hastened to the palace. The vizier found the 
sultan dressed and seated on the side of his bed. 
He prostrated himself before him, and, according to 
the Oriental custom, offered him the gold he had 
brought. "What are you doing, L,ala?" said Ma- 
homet. "When the officers of the empire," replied 
Khalil, "are called by their masters at extraordinary 
hours, they should never appear with their hands 
empty; I present you, not what belongs to me, but 
what is your own." " I do not need it," answered 
the sultan, " I would rather heap benefits upon your 
head. I ask of you only one thing, which is very 
near my heart : help me to take Constantinople." 

At these words the grand vizier shuddered ; for he 
was the secret friend of the Greeks, having been 
won over by their gifts. Recovering from his sur- 
prise, he replied: "The same God who has given 
you so large a portion of the Roman empire, will not 
refuse to open to you likewise the gates of the capi- 
tal. The favors He has been pleased to shower upon 
you, and your great power, assure me that this city 
will not escape your grasp. Do not doubt it, my 
lord ; your faithful servants will sacrifice wealth and 
life to procure the success of our enterprise." "I 
have tossed all night upon my bed," resumed Ma- 
homet, "I arose, I lay down again, I could not 
sleep. But I will combat the Romans in such a 
manner that, confiding in God and his prophet, we 
shall not fail to take Constantinople." Thus he 
dismissed his grand vizier, whose anxiety he had 
quieted by the kindness of his words. Forever tor- 



I92 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

men ted by his projects of conquest, the sultan en- 
joyed no repose. He employed his leisure hours in 
tracing the plans of the capital of the Greek empire, 
its walls, its fortifications — in discussing with his 
generals and engineers the points of attack, the dis- 
position of the different army corps, the situation of 
the machines and batteries, the places where mines 
could be sprung or scaling ladders applied. He 
effected in the day what he had planned in the 
night. 

Whilst Mahomet was menacing the last asylum 
of Christianity in the East, Constantine, feeling that 
the last hour of the empire was at hand, implored 
heaven with fervent prayers and cast to the West an 
expiring cry of alarm. But his voice was unheeded 
amid the hostilities of kings and nations, more pow- 
erful over men than their common danger. If Eu- 
rope seemed to view with indifference the storm 
which was about to burst over Constantinople, and 
to overthrow the bulwark of Christian society, it 
was because she was herself experiencing a terrible 
crisis, and because all her nations were harassed by 
war. 

In the North, Sweden and Norway, which had 
been temporarily united under the sway of the cele- 
brated Margaret Waldemar, had just been divided 
into three kingdoms (1448). The effort to reunite 
these into one caused a century of wars. Therefore 
the Scandanavian states, surrounded moreover by 
idolatrous Finns and Laplanders, refused to combat 
the enemies of the faith before the walls of Byzan- 
tium. It would seem that conformity of doctrine 
and religious ceremonies should have interested 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 93 

Russia more deeply than the other powers in the 
misfortunes of tne Greeks. But Russia, still a prey 
to her Tartar conquerors, could only attend to her 
own miseries, and above all, desired to regain her 
independence by shaking off the yoke of the hated 
foreigner. Though Poland, under the Jagellons, 
was the dominant power of the North, though she 
had more than once disputed the possession of Hun- 
gary and Bohemia with Austria, and given sover- 
eigns to these two kingdoms, yet there were sources 
of weakness within her, concealed for the time, but 
which were soon to cause her downfall, and make 
her lose the rank to which she had been elevated by 
the exertion of her kings. Prussia had not yet en- 
tered into the family of nations. 

England was not disposed to undertake distant 
expeditions : the weak Henry VI. of the house of 
Lancaster, heir of the victor of Agincourt, had just 
lost one of his crowns, and felt that the other was 
about to fall from his head. Richard of York was 
preparing to assert the claims of his family. The 
parliament, shorn of its power under Henry IV. and 
Henry V., aspired to regain its ancient influence. 
Thus in England w r ere fomenting those internal 
dissensions, those vicissitudes of the long struggle 
between the houses of York and Lancaster, w T hlch 
for a half century were to paralyze her forces. The 
Scotch excused themselves upon the plea of the dis- 
tance, and their king, James II., but little interested 
in the calamities of the East, after a stormy minority, 
thought only of restoring order and peace to his 
state, of diminishing the power of the aristocracy 
and promulgating laws advantageous to the crown. 
13 



194 TH ^ IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

France, whose nobles had so frequently signalized 
their courage against the infidels in Africa, Europe 
and Asia, learned with deep sorrow the triumphs of 
Islamism. But after the long and terrible war which 
had arrested her progress and long endangered her 
independence, she was slowly recovering from its 
effects, and desired peace to heal her wounds and 
enjoy the wise government of Charles VII. 'Like 
the king of Scotland, the king of France was sur- 
rounded by powerful vassals, and he was dealing 
blows against these feudal nobles, and preferred to 
banish anarchy from his own kingdom, rather than 
fight, without profit, the warlike Ottomans. 

Spain, divided into several kingdoms, and iso- 
lated, as it were, from the rest of Europe, had on 
her hands an uninterrupted crusade against the 
Moors of Granada, and she could not spare her 
forces for a foreign warfare, The emperor could ask 
aid against the formidable armies of Mahomet II. 
neither from Switzerland, which had just concluded 
a long struggle with the dukes of Austria, nor from 
Italy, which was cut up into small states, divided 
in their interests and views, jealous of each other, 
corrupted by luxury, without public morals, and 
themselves defended by mercenary troops. 

The empire, Hungary and Bohemia, which w r ould 
be unprotected from the sword of the enemy should 
the Mussulmans triumph over the Greeks, were the 
only nations upon whom it seemed any reliance for 
help could be placed. But at this period, the em- 
peror Frederick III., of the house of Austria, was 
far from possessing the same power as the ancient 
Caesars. Under the reign of this prince Germany, 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 95 

distracted by civil wars, which were often repressed 
but as often renewed, was in no condition to oppose 
the progress of the ferocious conquerors who threat- 
ened Europe with another invasion. Whilst Con- 
stantine's ambassadors were traversing the West, 
imploring aid from every Christian prince, the selfish 
and heartless Frederic was occupied only with his 
own affairs and the aggrandizement of his family, 
and he went to Rome to receive from the pope the 
imperial crown. The kingdom of Hungary, one of 
the most powerful nations of Europe in the twelfth 
century, lost much power and influence, after the 
prerogatives of the magnates and barons had been 
increased by a new constitution, to the detriment of 
the royal authority. The crown, which was now 
elective, was worn at that time by Eadislaus the 
Posthumous, under the regency of John Hunniades. 
This hero, having made peace with the Ottomans, 
turned his entire attention to the affairs of Hungary 
and Austria. Ladislaus the Posthumous, also 
reigned over Bohemia, under the guardianship of 
Podiebrad. But the unsettled condition both of 
political and religious affairs in this state prevented 
her from turning her forces against the Turks. 
Thus Europe, grown old in dissensions and swayed 
by diverse interests, was unable to make an effort to 
save the Byzantine empire, w 7 hose long and painful 
agony she had viewed for years with indifference. 

Constantine, who expected to see his capital be- 
sieged at the commencement of spring, sent envoys 
to the islands and provinces inhabited by Christians, 
to purchase grain and other provisions. Four large 
vessels sailed for the isle of Chios, whence they were 



I96 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

directed to bring corn, wine, oil, pease and barley. 
Besides these four vessels, another was expected 
from Morea, and the five were to return to Constan- 
tinople at the same time, bearing soldiers and 
sailors. The inhabitants of these islands were agi- 
tated by an uncertainty mingled with fear and hope. 
Some believed that Mahomet would make himself 
master of the city; others were persuaded that his 
enterprise would not be more successful than that 
of his father and grandfather, all whose efforts were 
baffled by the energetic defence of the Greeks. Be- 
fore following the sultan to the siege of the capital 
of the Byzantine empire, it will not be amiss to give 
some historical and topographical account of this 
celebrated city. 

Situated in the Eastern extremity of Europe, in 
the most magnificent position, Constantinople, like 
Rome, is built on seven hills. It was called Byzan- 
tium from the navigator Byzas, its first founder 
(656 B. C); then Constantinople, from Constantine, 
who selected it for his residence and introduced 
Christianity. In digging the ground and clearing 
away the rubbish, by order of the emperor, there 
were found, according to ancient historians, strange 
to say, old medals stamped with a crescent. Before 
resuming this symbol under Mahomet II., the city 
was to subsist a thousand years under the sign of 
the cross. The degenerate Greeks afterwards called 
it Istambol ; this was altered by the Turks into 
Islambid, signifying in their language, "plenitude 
of Islam." They also bestowed upon it the pomp- 
ous title of Mother of the World (Oumm-Udduni'a). 
Queen of two continents and two seas, the vast com- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 97 

mercial mart of the East and West, the second 
Rome, at first a rival of ancient Rome and soon 
surpassing her elder sister and enriched with her 
spoils, is placed at the extremity of the two parts of 
the world, almost enveloped by water and joining 
the land only by a single point at Thrace. We 
may represent it to ourselves as an irregular tri- 
angle, of which the obtuse angle, projecting towards 
the shores of Asia, is washed by the waves of the 
Bosphorus. Towards the south it overlooks the 
Sea of Marmora, anciently known under the name 
of Propontis, and the straits of Dardanelles, formerly 
the Hellespont. From the former of these seas the 
navigator can follow the steep coast of Thrace, and 
behold the summit of Olympus crowned with per- 
petual snow. The narrowest part of the Hellespont 
is between the ancient cities of Sestos and Abydos. 
It was here that Xerxes constructed his marvellous 
bridge of boats to convey his army into Europe. 

On the eastern side, Constantinople commands the 
winding length of the Bosphorus, which, like an 
immense serpent, forms seven coils, concealing its 
w r aves at intervals behind the seven promontories of 
each of its coasts. If the temples and expiatory 
altars, which Greek navigators scattered profusely 
over rocks and shores, were proofs of their fears and 
ignorance, in our days a vast panorama gives evi- 
dence of the life of a great people. This panorama 
unfolds to our view, dotted with towers, villages and 
palaces, presenting to the eye, in the incomparable 
passage of the Bosphorus, elegant kiosks, charming 
dwellings, and superb edifices, with an admirable 
chaos of red roofs, old cypress trees, and the white 



I98 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

spires of three hundred and forty-four mosques. 
From the southern outlet of the strait, the view ex- 
tends to the Euxine Sea. The new forts of Europe 
and Asia are constructed on both continents. The 
ancient castles, the work of the Greek emperors, 
which formerly served as State prisons, and which 
were called the Towers of Lethe, guard the narrowest 
part of the channel. At its northern extremity, the 
Bosphorus makes towards the west a turn resembling 
the horn of a cow, terminating in the most magnifi- 
cent and safest harbor in the world. This harbor 
is always filled with vessels from every nation of the 
globe. Its form and the wealth which naturally 
flows thither have obtained it the appropriate name 
of the Golden Horn. 

At the period of the siege of Constantinople by 
Mahomet II., there was a fort at each point of the 
triangle. The Acropolis, situated upon the prom- 
ontory, now called the Seraglio, was the castle of 
St. Demetrius. At the extremity of the harbor lay 
the Cynegion, the Hai'wan Serai of the present day, 
a vast circular enclosure destined for the combats of 
wild beasts ; beyond this was the palace of Blach- 
ernes, the favorite residence of the last Greek em- 
perors. At the third angle, that is at the othei 
extremity of the wall on the land side, arose the 
Cyclobion or Pentapyrgion (five towers); this fortress 
afterwards became famous under the name of the 
Seven Lovers. Between the Acropolis and Penta- 
pyrgion, two basins had been dug; these were beau- 
tified by the palaces of the Emperors Theodosius 
and Julian, by whose orders the work had been 
completed and which bore their names: they are 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 1 99 

now filled with sand. The grand imperial palace 
occupied very nearly the site of the present Seraglio. 

Terrified by the extensive preparations of the 
sultan, the Greeks recalled all the sinister predic- 
tions which had long been circulated among them 
in regard to the destinies of the reigning dynasty, 
the capital and empire, and even of Christendom. 

There were fourteen gates in the city opening on 
the harbor: two of these, the gate of the Circus and 
the Golden Gate, through which the triumphal 
processions usually passed, had been walled up in 
consequence of an ancient prophecy that through 
them the conquerors would enter the city. This 
tradition still exists among the Turks, who believe 
that the Christians at some future day will regain 
possession of Islambul, and will re-enter the city of 
Constantine through the Golden Gate and re-estab- 
lish the religion of their fathers. Another still more 
ancient prediction, attributed to a holy man named 
Morenus, asserted that a people armed with bows 
and arrows would exterminate the Greeks. 

Other reports arising from superstition and fear 
circulated among the people. Whilst these had the 
effect of redoubling the ardor of the Mussulmans, 
they deprived the Greeks of all energy, and seemed, 
by their fatal influence, to prepare the catastrophe 
they announced. Now the ruin of the Byzantine 
empire was read in the oracles attributed to the 
sibyl of Erythrea; again, Leo the Wise had made 
discoveries in the convent of St. George predicting 
its downfall. It was also said that a soothsayer, on 
being consulted by Michael, the first of the Palae- 
ologi, in reference to the destiny of the empire and 



200 THK IvAST CflSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

his successors, had answered with one word, mama- 
imi, which, being composed of seven letters, indi- 
cated, according to interpreters, that the sovereignty 
of the family of the Palseologi would end with the 
seventh of the name, who would be contemporary 
with the seventh Ottoman sultan. Finally, John 
Hunniades, in his flight after the battle of Kossora, 
had met an old man gifted with the spirit of proph- 
ecy. The hero related to him his misfortunes, and 
testified his sorrow that fortune had abandoned the 
Greeks and favored the infidels. To console him 
for his defeat, the old man said : ' ' The Christians 
will suffer reverses until the Greeks are extermin- 
ated. To put an end to their misfortunes, Constan- 
tinople must fall into the hands of the Turks.' ' 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SIKGK AND FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE — DESTRUC- 
TION OF THK EMPIRE OF THE EAST. 

Transportation of the great cannon before the walls of Constantinople 
— Commencement of the siege — Ambassadors from John Hunniades 
in the Turkish camp— Forces of the Ottomans and the Greeks — At- 
tack and defence — Victory of the five vessels bearing aid to the 
Greeks — Council held by Mahomet— He transports his ships across 
the land — Justinian fails in an attempt to burn the Turkish fleet — 
Distress of the city — Reply of Mahomet to a message from Constan- 
tine — A second attempt of the Christians to burn the bridge and the 
sultan's fleet — Final message of Mahomet to the Greek emperor — 
Noble answer of Constantine — Preparations made by the Turks for a 
general assault— Constantine rouses the courage of the Greeks — The 
Genoese repair the breaches made in the walls — The sultan makes 
useless efforts to corrupt Justinian — A second council assembled by 
Mahomet — Last adieu of the emperor and the Greeks — The general 
assault — Death of the emperor — Fall of the city — Pillage of Constan- 
tinople — Captivity of the Greeks — Departure of the Italian vessels. 

Early in February, 1453, Mahomet ordered the 
immense cannon of Orban to be placed before the 
walls of Constantinople. It was drawn by sixty 
oxen; two hundred men walked on each side to 
keep it erect ; two hundred and fifty workmen pre- 
ceded it to level the ground and repair the roads. 
Two months were required to make a two days' 
journey. Karadjabeg, w 7 ho was appointed to super- 
intend the removal, occupied the leisure time af- 
forded by so slow a march in making excursions to 
the north and south of Constantinople ; he even 
proceeded as far as the shores of the Black Sea, and 
the Propontis. On the way he subjugated the cities 
of Mesembria, Anchialos, Byzon and the Castle of 

(201) 



202 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

St. Stephen, not far from Constantinople. The 
garrison of the latter were massacred in punishment 
of their resistance. Other fortresses surrendered at 
the first summons and received no injury; but the 
Turks made a frightful example of those who at- 
tempted to defend themselves. Selymbria, however, 
did not appear dismayed by the consequences, and 
trusting in the strength of her walls, she determined 
to repulse courageously the enemy's attack. But 
all efforts were vain against the conqueror, who ex- 
tended his ravages to the very gates of Constanti- 
nople. 

At the commencement of the month of March, 
Mahomet published throughout the provinces an 
order commanding all his subjects capable of bear- 
ing arms to follow him to the siege of Constantino- 
ple. Besides those who were obliged to go, a crowd 
of volunteers flocked to his standard. Old men and 
children were eager to take part in the holy war. 
The sultan commanded the army in person, and on 
the Friday after Easter, April 6, 1453, he appeared 
before Constantinople and placed his tent in the rear 
of the hill which faced the gate called Caligaria. 
His troops covered the whole plain. The large 
cannon was drawn up before the gate St. Romain, 
afterwards called by the name it now bears of Big- 
Cannon. By the side of this piece were two others 
of less calibre, intended to prepare the way for the 
large cannon. Two hours were required to load this 
piece, and it could be fired only eight times in the 
day ; the first shot before dawn was the signal for 
the commencement of the attack. 

John Hunniades, as mentioned above, had con- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 203 

eluded with Mahomet a truce of three years. He 
now sent an envoy to the Ottoman camp to represent 
to the sultan that he had resigned the administra- 
tion of affairs into the hands of Ladislaus, his mas- 
ter; being, therefore, no longer able to fulfill the 
conditions of the treaty, he returned the Turkish 
copy which he had held, and asked in exchange the 
Hungarian copy in the possession of Mahomet, who 
would then be at liberty to make such arrangements 
as might please him with the King of Hungary. The 
prophecy of which we spoke above had influenced 
the regent to take this step ; and for his part, the 
ambassador considered it a duty to secure the repose 
and safety of Christendom by hastening the fall of 
Constantinople, and thus accomplishing the predic- 
tion of the old man. One day, being present when 
the great cannon was fired, he ridiculed the engineer 
who directed the aim, and instructed him how to 
use the piece advantageously. He taught him in 
making a breach not to aim always at the same 
spot, but to fire alternate^ a certain distance to the 
right and to the left, and then in the centre, so as to 
break down the wall already weakened by the pre- 
vious shot. The Turks followed his advice, and 
success soon crowned their efforts. Thus it was a 
Hungarian artificer who cast the cannon, and a 
Hungarian ambassador who taught the Turks the 
method of using it. 

Besides Orban's enormous piece, and the two 
smaller ones on each side of it, the Turks arranged 
a long line of less powerful batteries against the 
walls, and fourteen ballista played incessantly upon 
the most accessible parts. The archers poured 



204 THE LAST C^BSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

upon the besieged a shower of arrows ; the miners 
from the mountains of Novoberda pushed their work 
up to the very trench of the city. Mahomet ordered 
to be constructed four towers mounted upon wheels, 
and a gigantic machine named by the Greeks Epe- 
polia (that which takes cities). It was put in mo- 
tion by cylinders ; a triple covering of ox-hides pro- 
tected this movable magazine, carrying ammunition 
and materials to fill up the trench. The upper story 
consisted of turrets and parapets, which permitted 
the men within to shoot through openings without 
being themselves exposed to danger. There were 
three doors in the lower part, by which the soldiers 
could make sorties, and the workmen could enter 
and retire. A stairway gave access to the platform 
on the top of the machine; from this could be 
lowered a sort of drawbridge, which being fastened 
to the rampart of the enemy, rendered a close com- 
bat easy. 

Ducas estimates the Turkish army under the 
walls of Constantinople at two hundred thousand 
men; Leonard of Chios, at three hundred thousand. 
The latter is an exaggergated account, and we 
adopt that of of Phranza, who places the numbers 
at two hundred and fifty-eight thousand men. 
Thus the Ottomans had a force twenty times as 
large as that of the besieged; and moreover the 
ardor of the intrepid fanatics, who were enticed by 
the sound of the sacred trumpet to the standard of 
Mahomet, was superior, beyond comparison, to the 
valor the Greeks could display in their defence. 

Constantinople contained more than a hundred 
thousand inhabitants ; the greater part were work- 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 205 

men, priests, women, and men devoid of courage, 
upon whom no reliance could be placed. According 
to an estimate made by the order of the emperor 
during the siege, Phranza attests that the number 
of citizens, including the monks, willing to bear 
arms, did not exceed four thousand nine hundred 
and seventy-three. To these must be added a body 
of foreign troops two thousand strong, and about 
five hundred Genoese under the orders of John 
Longus, of the noble family of Justiniani, sent on 
two galleys to the aid of the agonizing empire. 
Constantine was overpowered with gratitude to- 
wards these auxiliaries, and he loaded them with 
presents. He appointed Longus captain of a body 
of troops, and granted him the sovereignty of the 
island of Lemnos, in case Mahomet II. should be 
forced to abandon the siege. Not only the Greeks 
cherished this hope, but even the Genoese, masters 
of Galata, were likewise deceived. They had, it is 
true, sent ambassadors to the sultan before his de- 
parture from Adrian ople, assuring him of the fidel- 
ity of their friendship, and renewing their former 
alliance with him. Mahomet promised them to ad- 
here to the letter of the written treaties, and main- 
tain the present condition of peace and friendship, 
provided they observed a strict neutrality. But the 
Genoese, distrusting the sincerity of his words, 
furnished all possible aid to the inhabitants of Con- 
stantinople. Informed of the deception, the sultan 
determined to take his revenge at some future time. 
"I will let the serpent sleep," he said, "until I 
have killed the dragon, and then with one blow I 
will crush his head. ' ' 



206 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

As to the maritime force of the Greeks, it con- 
sisted of three large Venetian merchantmen, three 
Genoese vessels, one French, and one Spanish ship, 
two from Cydon, and four from Candia. Thus a 
capital of fourteen miles in circumference was de- 
fended against the whole forces of the Ottoman em- 
pire only by a garrison of seven or eight thousand 
soldiers and a navy of fourteen sail. The besiegers 
could draw resources both from Europe and Asia ; 
the Greeks, enclosed within their walls, w T ere cut 
off from all assistance. 

They were equally inferior to the Ottomans in 
artillery. A piece of the caliber of Orban's would 
have been useless to them, for the smallest cannon 
which they possessed were too heavy for the walls, 
and weakened them at every discharge by the con- 
cussion, so that such arms did more injury to the 
Greeks than to their enemies. Nevertheless, when 
one of their large cannon burst, they accused the 
artificer of having been bribed by Mahomet, and in 
their fury they were about to put him to death ; but 
not having sufficient proof, they restored him to 
liberty. At the commencement of the siege, the 
soldiers descended into the trench or rallied into the 
open field. But what advantage could one Chris- 
tian obtain over twenty Mussulmans? Their dis- 
proportionate numbers obliged them to limit their 
attacks to hurling weapons from the ramparts. 

We must admit that amid the pusillanimity 
evinced by the Greek nation in this pressing dan- 
ger, Constantine displayed the talents and courage 
of a hero. The noble band of volunteers who had 
ranged themselves under his standard were ani- 



THB LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 207 

mated by the love of their country, and the foreign 
auxiliaries rivalled them in zeal to maintain worthily 
the honor of the western chivalry : in a word, we 
might say that the energy of the victors of Mara- 
thon and Salamis was infused into the souls of the 
generous defenders of Greece. From the midst of 
the clouds of smoke, the noise and fire of the 
cannons, they rained on the assailants a shower of 
javelins and arrows. At the same time they hurled 
from each of their small arms five or ten leaden balls 
about the size of a nut, with such force that they 
pierced shields, breast-plates, and passed through 
the bodies of several men. 

But the Turks, as obstinate in their attack as the 
Greeks in their defence, soon approached the walls, 
protected in trenches or by heaps of ruins. Reaching, 
on one occasion, the sides of the trench, they under- 
took to fill up the immense opening made by their 
artillery, and to form a path by which they could 
make an assault. They heaped up a quantity of 
bundles of wood, casks and trunks of trees. The 
activity of the workmen was prodigious, but those 
who were near the edge, or whose strength was not 
equal to the task, fell in, and were buried under the 
mass of wood and other materials thrown upon them. 
The besieged redoubled their efforts to render fruit- 
less the work of their enemies, and after long and 
sanguinary contests during the day, they employed 
the night in destroying the work which the Turks 
had succeeded in accomplishing. They repaired the 
breaches with wood and casks filled with stones and 
earth, while the workmen drove the enemy from 
the mines they had dug, or arrested their progress 
by countermines. 



208 THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

John Grant, a worthy rival of the Hungarian 
auxiliary of the Turks, taught the Greeks a better 
method of hurling the inextinguishable Greek fire. 
By means of these liquid flames, they reduced to 
ashes the large machine with its triple covering of 
leather, which during the night had demolished the 
tower of St. Romain. After an obstinate combat, 
to which the darkness of night alone put an end, 
the Turks had been repulsed. They flattered them- 
selves that at daybreak they would renew the attack 
with greater success. But the emperor and the 
Genoese Justiniani took advantage of the time 
which the enemy gave to repose and hope. Not- 
withstanding the fatigues of the preceding day, they 
passed the night on the walls, surrounded by en- 
gineers and workmen, in order to press forward the 
work upon which depended the safety of Constanti- 
nople. At the dawn of day the impatient Mahomet 
called the soldiers to arms. What was his grief and 
astonishment at the sight of the trench cleared out 
and his machine destroyed ! He could not, how- 
ever, forbear paying a just tribute to the defense of 
the Greeks, and he swore by thirty-seven thousand 
prophets that he could not have believed the infidels 
able to accomplish so great a task in a single night. 

As soon as Constantine feared his capital would 
be besieged, he sent, as we have said, to solicit aid 
from the islands of the Archipelago, Morea and 
Sicily. Five vessels, laden with grain, barley, oil 
and vegetables, and carrying soldiers and sailors, 
had been unable to leave Chios during the whole 
month of March. One bore the imperial flag ; the 
other four belonged to the Genoese. They took ad- 



THE I, AST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 209 

vantage of the first wind from the south to set sail. 
They crossed the Hellespont and Propontis without 
accident, and appeared opposite Constantinople. 
But the Turkish squadron, placed at the entrance 
of the Bosphorus, extended from one shore to the 
other in the form of a crescent, for the purpose of 
preventing the entrance of Christian vessels into the 
harbor. The sky was serene, and the sea calm. 
The five vessels advanced with shouts of joy against 
the hostile fleet. The walls of the city, the camp, 
the coasts of Europe and Asia, were covered with 
spectators, anxiously awaiting the arrival of this 
important aid. Mahomet himself approached the 
shore to contemplate the preparations for this naval 
combat, in which the numerical superiority of his 
vessels seemed to promise him a certain victory. 
But the crews of the eighteen galleys which occu- 
pied the head of his squadron were formed of inex- 
perienced soldiers. The rest consisted of open boats, 
heavily built, overcrowded with men, and destitute 
of artillery. Skilful pilots directed the movements 
of the five vessels of the Christians, which were 
filled with veterans from Italy and Greece, long ac- 
customed to the labors and dangers of navigation. 
They endeavored to sink or break to pieces the 
feeble boats which barred their passage. From 
their ships, whose cannons swept the waves, fell a 
shower of arrows, a rain of stones and Greek fire, 
on the vessels of the enemy which ventured the at- 
tempt to board them. 

Flectanella, the captain of the imperial vessel, 
fought in the first ranks like a lion, and performed 
prodigies of valor. His worthy rivals in glory, 

14 



2IO THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Cataneo, Novarra, and Balameri, commanders of 
the Genoese squadron, equalled him in courage and 
energy; by their exertions they saved from destruc- 
tion the ship of Flectanella, which was in danger 
of being overpowered by numbers. Several of the 
Turkish galleys ran into each other and were de- 
stroyed; two caught fire. Repulsed in two attacks, 
the enemy experienced a considerable loss. At the 
sight of his vessels devoured by the flames, and of 
the defeat of his men, the Sultan could not restrain 
the transports of his anger. Forgetting the dis- 
tance, the element which he braves, and his own 
dignity, foaming with rage, he makes useless efforts 
to force his charger into the sea and to snatch the 
victory from the grasp of the Greeks. The officers 
surrounding him endeavor likewise to join the fleet. 
His violent reproaches, his menaces, the fear of his 
chastisements, and the clamors of the soldiers from 
the camp, determine the commanders of the Turkish 
fleet to make a third attack. It was still more fatal 
than the former two; according to Phranza, they 
lost more than twelve thousand men. Favored by 
a wind which blew at the time, the squadron of the 
Christians advanced triumphantly along the Bos- 
phorus, hailed by the joyous acclamations of the 
soldiers, sailors, and inhabitants of the besieged 
city, whilst the Turkish fleet fled in disorder. It 
entered the harbor under full sail, which was imme- 
diately closed by dropping the iron chain extending 
from a gate of Galata to one in Constantinople. 

Mahomet avenged himself for this humiliation 
upon his admiral, Baltaoghli, a renegade descended 
from the Princes of Bulgaria, whose fine military 



THE LAST C.ESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 211 

qualities were obscured by his avarice. Furious 
against this commander, to whose cowardice he 
ascribed the defeat, he ordered him to be executed, 
but consented to grant him his life at the urgent en- 
treaties of the Janizaries; without any considera- 
tion, however, for the rank and services of the 
unfortunate Baltaoghli, he wished to wreak his ven- 
geance on him with his own hands. Four slaves 
were ordered to extend the admiral on the ground, 
and the sultan inflicted upon him one hundred 
blows with the topouz (a kind of club, the emblem 
of authority). After this ignominious punishment, 
an azab, not, however, by Mahomet's direction, 
threw a large stone in his face, which made a deep 
wound in his cheek and put out an eye. This dis- 
aster of the first admiral of the Ottoman empire 
gave rise to the belief among the Turks that God 
intended for them the sovereignt}^ by land, but left 
to the infidels the superiority on the sea. 

The aid thus received by the besieged, in so unex- 
pected a manner and in spite of formidable obsta- 
cles, raised the hopes of the Greeks, whose obstinate 
and surprising resistance was beginning, according 
to their historians, to wear out the perseverance of 
the sultan. The grand vizier Khalil, won over by 
the court of Byzantium, w 7 ith which he had kept up 
a secret correspondence, and perhaps really desir- 
ing the preservation of Constantinople, considered 
the present a favorable opportunity to induce his 
master to make peace. But his views were opposed 
by the second vizier, Saganos Pasha, brother-in-law 
and favorite of Mahomet, by the mollah Mahomet 
Hourani, and the cheik Ak-Chems-Uddin, who like 



212 THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Bokhari, but more successfully, aroused the enthu- 
siasm of the people by his predictions. In a divan 
held after the repulse of the fleet, the continuation 
of the siege was resolved upon, notwithstanding the 
efforts of Khalil, who represented to the sultan that 
more considerable reinforcements could be sent to 
the enemy, and that they were uselessly prolonging 
the combat. 

Mahomet saw that he must abandon the project 
of becoming master of the city, unless an attack by 
sea could be made simultaneously with an advance 
of his troops by land. But when he asked his 
counsellors what means could be employed to break 
the heavy chain which closed the harbor, in which 
now lay eight large vessels and twenty smaller ones, 
besides galleys and boats, they were silent. Then 
the sultan solved the difficulty by a bold resolution, 
that of transporting his fleet by land from the shore 
of the Bosphorus to the remote extremity of the 
harbor. This laborious operation was successfully 
and skilfully executed. By Mahomet's order a 
large platform was constructed and thickly coated 
with grease. Seventy boats of different sizes were 
lifted upon rollers and then pushed upon the 
slippery platform. Two pilots were stationed at 
the prow and helm of each vessel; the sails were 
unfurled, the trumpets sounded, drums beat, and 
shouts and songs relieved the fatigue of the work- 
men. In the space of one night, the fleet ascended 
the hill, traversed the plain, and the following 
morning was moored in the gulf of the Golden 
Horn. The rising sun discovered to the stupefied 
inhabitants the vessels of their indefatigable enemy 



THE LAST OdSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 213 

opposite their walls, with a communication open to 
the sea. In the first moment of consternation, they 
wished to surrender. The intrepid emperor en- 
deavored to reanimate their courage, and prepared 
to defend the capital to the last extremity. 

Notwithstanding the terror of the Greeks, Justini- 
ani failed not to combat valiantly with his soldiers. 
A few Genoese, whilst expressing much affection 
for the Greeks, proved false to both parties. They 
repaired to the Turkish camp, sold them provisions, 
oil for greasing their large cannon, and other neces- 
sary articles. When night enabled them to return 
secretly to Constantinople, they joined again the 
defenders of the city and aided them to repel the 
assailants. The Venetians displayed uncommon 
valor, and the grand-duke exhibited the greatest 
vigilance. He daily visited all the posts of the 
capital, to see if the soldiers were upon duty and to 
animate their courage. 

Justiniani, having determined to burn the Turk- 
ish fleet, prepared a galley for this purpose, manned 
it with one hundred and fifty young men, the flower 
of the Italian troops, and collected the necessary 
machines and fire-works. But the Genoese of Ga- 
lata, having discovered his intention, betrayed it to 
the besiegers, who were, consequently, on their 
guard. When the vessel of the brave Justiniani 
approached the enemy's squadron about midnight, 
the Turks fired upon him, and his vessel sank with 
the warriors on board. The Genoese chief escaped 
with difficulty, but the greater part of the crew 
perished in the sea. The cry of distress of the un- 
fortunate companions of Justiniani was answered on 



214 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

the part of the Turks by a shout of victory so loud 
that Ducas compared the noise to the sound of an 
earthquake. The victors wished the following 
morning to try a second time the efficacy of their 
artillery. They pointed one of their guns, not at a 
Greek vessel, but at a Genoese boat laden with rich 
merchandise, which was anchored before Galata: it 
was shivered to pieces. The Genoese deputies com- 
plained bitterly of such a return for the aid afforded 
by them, and without which the fleet could not 
have been transported across the land. The viziers 
apologized by saying that they thought the vessel 
belonged to the enemy, and that an indemnity for 
the loss would be granted at the conclusion of the 
war. The deputies were appeased by these words, 
not suspecting that they themselves would soon be 
involved in the common ruin. 

The sultan ordered all the young men who had 
been made prisoners during the night to be con- 
ducted before the walls of the city, and massacred 
in sight of the Greeks. This terrible revenge in- 
creased the consternation of the Greeks, whose dis- 
tress words are inadequate to express. At the end 
of forty days, the small garrison was exhausted by 
a two-fold attack ; the fortifications, which for nearly 
two centuries had withstood the successive efforts of 
the Persians, the Avarians and Arabians, fell under 
the cannons of the Ottomans. Several breaches had 
been already made, and four towers near the gate of 
St. Romain were a mass of ruins. Constantine, 
destitute of money to pay his enfeebled troops, who 
were inclined to revolt, was obliged to despoil the 
churches, promising to return fourfold the value of 



THE LAST C^SSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 215 

what he took. At last, misfortune broke the pride 
of the Greek monarch, and he sent a messenger to 
propose peace to the sultan, asking him to impose a 
tribute and withdraw. "It is impossible for me to 
abandon the siege," replied Mahomet, "I will take 
the city or it shall take me, alive or dead. If you 
wish in good faith to leave it, I will give you Morea, 
I will cede other provinces to your brethren, and we 
shall remain friends. But if I take it by force of 
arms, I will strike all the nobles and officials with 
the sword ; I will permit the soldiers to make the 
people prisoners, and pillage the houses ; for my own 
share of the spoils, I shall be satisfied with the pos- 
session of the city and its edifices." A sentiment 
of honor and the fear of universal blame forbade 
Palaeologus to surrender Constantinople to the in- 
fidels. 

Encouraged by his recent success and determined 
not to let the prey escape his grasp, the sultan, now 
master of the harbor, constructed at the narrowest 
point a bridge, or rather a mole, fifty cubits wide 
and a hundred long, formed of casks connected by 
iron clamps and surmounted by planks firmly fas- 
tened. Five soldiers abreast could pass on this 
mole, upon which was placed one of the large can- 
nons, whilst the galleys and the troops with scaling 
ladders approached the most accessible part of the 
wall. The Christians, having in vain endeavored to 
destroy the works before their completion, conceived 
the idea of burning the bridge and the vessels. 
This difficult enterprise was confided to the Vene- 
tian James Kok. He selected three small boats, on 
which forty of the most courageous . young sailors 



2l6 THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

embarked, supplied with Greek fire and other com- 
bustible materials. They set out in a dark night, 
leaving on the bridge two sailors with directions to 
fire it as soon as they saw the flames from the Turk- 
ish vessels. But the vigilance of the enemy pre- 
vented the execution of this bold project ; enormous 
masses of stone hurled upon their light boats 
crushed them. Only one galley was burned, and 
the fire upon the bridge was soon extinguished. 
The mariners of the small boats fell into the hands 
of the Turks, and were inhumanly massacred the 
next day in sight of the besieged. 

The failure of this enterprise provoked conten- 
tions between the Venetians and the Genoese auxil- 
iaries under the command of Justiniani. The latter 
threw the blame upon the inexperience of James 
Kok, and the indignant Venetians warmly defended 
their compatriot; the emperor was obliged to inter- 
pose, to prevent a bloody contest. Besides, the 
spirit of discord increased daily, and diminished the 
strength of the Christians. Mahomet now r ordered 
batteries to be placed upon the hill of St. Theodore, 
situated above Galata, with orders to fire indis- 
criminately upon all vessels, whether Greek or 
Genoese. The Genoese, in alarm, sent deputies to 
supplicate the sultan to spare their merchant vessels. 
Mahomet replied that he only treated in this man- 
ner pirates who afforded aid to the besieged. Fear- 
ing to expose their boats, the inhabitants placed 
them in a position to be sheltered by the houses. 

For seven weeks the siege had continued without 
relaxation by land, and now the city was invested 
by sea. In preceding sieges, it had been seriously 



THK LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 217 

menaced only at one point. But now the Turks 
occupied the trench, which was nearly rilled with the 
ruins of the towers and fortifications; their artillery 
had made a large breach in the St. Romain gate, 
and their vessels were approaching the most acces- 
sible point. When Mahomet considered his ar- 
rangements so far perfected as to enable him to 
possess himself of Constantinople, he sent a final 
message to the emperor by his son-in-law, Esfendiar- 
Oghlou, either to fulfil his duty as a Mussulman of 
offering to the gabours the alternative of embracing 
the religion of the prophet and submitting to pay 
tribute, or of resigning themselves to death, or to 
assure himself by an eye-witness if the city were 
able to prolong the resistance. The message was 
couched in the following terms: "All things are 
ready for an attack, and I am about to execute what 
I decided upon long ago. The result is in the hands 
of God. What will you do? Will you depart from 
your capital with the nobles of your empire, taking 
with them all their wealth, the inhabitants to remain 
secure from ill treatment either from your people or 
mine ? Should you determine to defend yourselves 
to the last extremity, you shall be deprived of prop- 
erty and life, the people shall be enslaved and dis- 
persed over the whole earth." 

Efendiar-Oghlou, being admitted to the presence 
of the emperor, who was surrounded by his court, 
advised him to avoid the wrath of the sultan, and 
by a timely submission spare his people the mis- 
eries of slavery. A council of war was held, and 
the decision was such as honor demanded. Con- 
stantine replied nobly to the Turkish ambassador : 



2l8 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

" If you will live at peace with us, as your ancestors 
lived with our ancestors, we shall return humble 
thanks to Almighty God. Your ancestors honored 
ours as their fathers. They regarded Constanti- 
nople as their country ; here they found an asylum 
under every misfortune. Not one of all those who 
ventured to attack the capital of the Roman empire 
lived long. Be satisfied with retaining undisturbed 
the provinces and cities of which you have unjustly 
deprived us. Impose upon us as heavy a tribute as 
you choose, and then withdraw your forces. The 
fortune of war is uncertain, and perhaps at the very 
time that you flatter yourself with having secured 
the conquest of our city, you may experience a re- 
verse. As to a surrender of the city a we do not en- 
entertain the thought. We are all determined to 
to die in its defence. ' ' 

Mahomet employed three days after the reception 
of this answer in making his preparations. On the 
24th of May he publicly appointed the 29th as the 
day for a simultaneous attack by sea and land. He 
assembled the chief officers of the army, and relying 
on the effect of temporal recompense, he solemnly 
promised the soldiery the pillage of the city. "It 
belongs to me," he said to them, "as well as the 
buildings ; but I renounce in your favor the cap- 
tives, the booty, and all its wealth." A shout of joy 
from the army welcomed this announcement of the 
sultan. The chiefs of the Janizaries promised him 
the victory in the name of the soldiers, and begged 
him to restore to liberty their unfortunate comrades, 
who had been kept in prison since the disastrous 
naval combat Mahomet complied with, their > re- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 2IO, 

quest, and the whole army abandoned itself to trans- 
ports of joy. To excite their enthusiasm still more, 
the sultan announced that timars, and even sandjaks, 
should be the recompense of those who should first 
mount the ramparts. At the same time he pro- 
claimed that fugitives and deserters should experi- 
ence no mercy. 

The dervishes, whose zeal Mahomet had inflamed 
by his promises, traversed the camp, in order to in- 
spire the soldiers with the desire of martyrdom. 
They conjured the Mussulmans in the name of the 
prophet to plant the standard of Islamism on the 
battlements of the city of the infidels. Their im- 
petuous exhortations excited among the Turks an 
eager desire for the combat. The camp resounded 
with songs and the oft-repeated acclamation : "God 
is God, and Mahomet is His prophet ! God is one, 
and there is none like to Him !" When darkness 
enveloped the earth, the trumpets sounded the sig- 
nal for a general illumination of the camp and fleet. 
Immediately there sprung up w r aves of light from the 
tents, from the shores of the Bosphorus, from the 
heights above Galata, from the extremity of the har- 
bor, and along the whole line of fortifications. The 
blaze of the fire-works was reflected from Scutari 
and the Asiatic shore. At the sight of the semi- 
circle of light surrounding them, hope, for a mo- 
ment, raised the drooping spirits of the besieged. 
They thought that an immense conflagration was 
consuming the tents and the fleet of the Turks ; but 
the dances and joyous shouts soon dispelled the illu- 
sion, and they felt that this was but a prelude to the 
triumph of the barbarians. . . It would be impossible 



220 THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

to describe the sad spectacle presented by the city of 
Constantine. Despair filled all hearts ; naught was 
heard but lamentations, and as a wail arose the 
plaintive cry : ' ' Kyrie, eleison ! Kyrie, eleison ! 
Turn away Thy anger from us, O Lord, and deliver 
us not into the hands of our enemies !" 

In this trying moment, the emperor visited in 
person every post; he assembled the noblest among 
the Greeks and the bravest of the auxiliaries, to pre- 
pare them for the general assault they were about to 
sustain, and to exhort them to do their duty. He 
neglected no means to excite the courage of his sub- 
jects. During the seven weeks of siege they had 
already endured, they had flattered themselves with 
the hope that the enemy would not venture to scale 
the walls. In consequence of this, many of the in- 
habitants had left the ramparts and returned to 
their homes. The Turks took advantage of the 
opportunity thus presented, and by means of enor- 
mous hooks, removed the gabions which the be- 
sieged used to fill up the breaches made by the 
enemy. The men who had deserted their posts 
gave as a reason to Constantine, who overwhelmed 
them with reproaches, that their wives and children 
had no food. The emperor ordered provisions to be 
distributed to the men and throughout the houses 
along the line of defence. 

In the meantime, Justiniani had w r orked without 
relaxation in repairing the breaches made by the 
Turks in the wall near the gate of St. Romain. By 
means of bundles of sticks, the Genoese had raised 
a new fortification, behind which they dug a deep 
trench. Seeing the labors and efforts of the brave 



THE LAST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 221 

Italians, the sultan exclaimed: "What would I not 
give to secure the services of such a man ! ' ' He 
made him secret offers and endeavored to win him 
by presents ; but he found him as inaccessible to his 
gold as to his sword. Justinian! exhausted himself 
in useless efforts to repair the fortifications, for they 
had not been put in a condition suitable for defence 
w 7 hilst time and money were at the command of the 
Greeks. The Monks, Manuel Giagari and Neophy- 
tus of Rhodes, to whose care the repairs had 
been committed previous to the siege by the Turks, 
had buried the money furnished them for the pur- 
pose; and when the city was pillaged, seventy 
thousand gold pieces which they had secreted were 
found. 

Deplorable as was the state of the city, the Greeks 
prepared to defend it. At the gate St. Romain, 
against which the fiercest attack was directed, were 
stationed the choicest Genoese troops, with Justiniani 
at their head ; there also were the emperor and Don 
Francis of Toledo. The defence of ten other posts 
was assigned to efficient officers, of known valor — 
Genoese, Venetians, Spanish, Germans and Rus- 
sians. The Greeks had command of only two. 
Some historians compute the whole available force 
of the garrison, including the monks who took up 
arms, at nine thousand men at most. 

Again the hopes of the besieged were aroused by 
a report circulated through the Ottoman camp that 
an army of Hungarians and Italians were marching 
to the relief of Constantinople. The Mussulmans 
became so terror-stricken that, notwithstanding the 
enthusiasm of the eve and their numerical superi- 



222 THK I. AST CESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

ority, they remained inactive for two days. But 
their courage was revived on the third day by the 
sight of a meteor which flashed across the heavens 
from the northwest over the city, as they regarded 
this phenomenon as a sign of the divine protection. 
Mahomet, who had wavered in his purpose of mak- 
ing an assault, assembled his council a second time. 
The pacific measures urged by Khalil were opposed 
by his former adversaries. In his anger the grand 
vizier ventured to give secret information to the 
Greeks, urging them to make a vigorous resistance, 
as in war victory was always uncertain. This 
passed on the evening of the 27th of May. 

On the following morning, Mahomet ranged his 
army in two grand columns for the attack by land. 
A formidable fleet of eighty galleys blockaded the 
city on the side of the sea. The Turkish forces op- 
posite the Golden Gate numbered one hundred thou- 
sand men. To the left of the camp fifty thousand 
were drawn up in echelons. A reserve of a hundred 
thousand were ready to support the above corps if 
necessity should require it. About sunset an extra- 
ordinary excitement was observed in the Turkish 
camp ; the clash of arms and the flourish of trumpets 
mingled with cries of La Ilah illalah ! The sultan, 
surrounded by the high officials of the Ottoman em- 
pire, reviewed his troops, harangued the generals, 
and excited their ardor by the most tempting 
promises. 

On his side, the emperor endeavored to reanimate 
in the hearts of the Greeks and the auxiliaries the 
hope he no longer cherished. His address- to the 
troops, preserved by the historian Phranza, may be 



THK LAST OdSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 223 

considered the funeral oration of the Byzantine em- 
pire. The example of their prince, the misfortunes 
of the beleaguered city, roused his warriors to the 
courage of despair. They wept, they embraced 
each other ; they devoted themselves to death. 
Every officer was at his post during the night, and 
kept guard on the ramparts. Constantine, accom- 
panied by the members of his household, repaired 
to the church of St. Sophia. They prayed, they 
received the Holy Communion amid the sobs of the 
crowd who thronged the edifice. Returning to the 
palace, the emperor allowed himself a few moments 
of repose ; he begged pardon of the weeping mul- 
titude for any offence of which he might have 
been guilty in their regard. Having fulfilled his 
religious duties, the emperor devoted his entire 
attention to the safety of the capital. He mounted 
his horse, and, followed by his faithful companions, 
visited every post in the city to encourage the sol- 
diers to do their duty. The fall of the last of the 
Constantines, says Gibbon, is more glorious than 
the prosperity of the Caesars of Byzantium. At 
early dawn the emperor was at the gate St. Romain, 
determined to conquer or to die. 

At sunrise, on the 29th of May, 1453, the Turks 
commenced the assault, without firing, as usual, 
their great cannon, and instantaneously it extended 
throughout the whole line, both by land and sea. 
In order to fatigue the Greeks and spare his best 
troops, Mahomet had composed the van of volun- 
teers who fought without order or discipline, and 
of those who had joined his standard from the hope 
of plunder. The artillery of the army corps, of the 



224 THK I.AST C^SSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

galleys and of the bridge, battered Constantinople 
simultaneously. An invincible courage was dis- 
played on both sides, and the Turkish loss was con- 
siderable. The whole city appeared surrounded by 
a close and unbroken line of hostile troops. Cries 
of terror and screams of pain mingled with the noise 
of drums, trumpets, cymbals and the discharge of 
artillery. At the end of two hours the Turks had 
gained no perceptible advantage. The sultan's of- 
ficers of justice were placed behind the assailants, 
and urged them on by blows of iron rods. Ma- 
homet, on horseback and armed with an iron club, 
employed, by turns, promises and threats, and di- 
rected and animated the host of warriors. To these 
immense efforts of the Ottomans, the Greeks opposed 
a heroic valor. A shower of arrows and stones fell 
upon those who were mounting to the assault; the 
terrible Greek fire flowed down the walls into the 
sea, set fire to the ships, and spread in a sheet of 
flame over the water. Thick clouds of smoke en- 
veloped the camp, the city, the besiegers and be- 
sieged. The trench was filled with the bodies of 
the slain, as the sultan hoped, and yet they had not 
reached the ramparts. Hurled from the scaling- 
ladders or crushed by stones, the men fell upon 
their vessels' decks or into the harbor. 

Seconded nobly by Theophilus Palaeologus and 
Demetrius Cantacuzenus, the emperor passed from 
post to post, encouraged his troops by word and ex- 
ample, and successfully repulsed the assailants. 
Victory seemed almost in the grasp of Constantine 
and his brave companions; deaf to the menaces of 
Mahomet, the Turks were giving way, when a ball 



THK LAST C^BSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 225 

or arrow pierced the hand of Justiniani. This man, 
whom Ducas calls an incomparable general, a formi- 
dable giant, could not bear the sight of his own 
blood and the extreme pain caused by the wound. 
"Hold your ground," he said to the emperor, 
"whilst I retire to my vessel to have my wound 
dressed ; I will return immediately. " * ' Your wound 
is not serious," exclaimed the emperor; "the danger 
is imminent, your presence is necessary; besides, how 
will you be able to leave the city ? " "I shall take 
the road," replied the Genoese, "which God Him- 
self has opened for the Turks." Saying these 
words, he passed through a breach in the interior 
wall and fled to Galata, forever dishonoring by this 
cowardly act a life of glory. Justiniani did not long 
survive his shame, and his last moments were im- 
bittered by the remorse of his own conscience and 
the contempt of all good men. The Genoese imi- 
tated the example of their chief and fled from the 
city, with the greater part of the Latin auxiliaries. 
Seeing them depart Constantine exclaimed: "Let 
us who remain, be faithful and do our duty." 

Up to this time, the valor of the besieged had com- 
pensated for the breaches made in the double walls, 
broken in every direction by the artillery of the 
enemy, which played upon them incessantly ; but 
the assailants outnumbered the besieged by fifty to 
one, and the retreat of Justiniani and the Genoese 
dismayed the remaining troops. Saganos-Pasha, 
who noticed some disorder in their ranks, urged 
his Janizaries to renewed exertion. One of them, 
Hassan d'Ouloubad, of gigantic size and immense 
strength, was the first to win the recompense prom- 
15 



226 THK I,AST OaSSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

ised by the sultan. With a cimeter in his right 
hand and holding in his left a shield above his 
head, he sprang upon the wall, followed by thirty 
companions, his rivals in courage ; they were re- 
ceived with showers pf arrows and stones ; eighteen 
Janizaries were precipitated from the wall at the 
same time. But having reached the summit, Has- 
san and his twelve companions defend themselves ; 
but he is himself thrown from the wall, and his body 
is soon covered with arrows and stones. 

Whilst the Greeks were thus valiantly defending 
the St. Romain gate, against which the principal 
attack was directed, the Turks had already entered 
the city on another side. The eve of the 29th, the 
gate Cercoporta, by the order of the emperor, who 
wished to surprise Mahomet's camp by an unex- 
pected sortie, had been opened, but by a fatal care- 
lessness it was not closed. Fifty Turks forced this 
passage, mounted the walls, and poured with irre- 
sistible impetuosity upon the combatants. At that 
moment a cry arose from the harbor that the city 
was in the hands of the enemy ; this disordered the 
ranks of those who were still resisting. Constantine, 
seeing the Greeks give way and falling back upon 
St. Sophia, abandoned the ground to the invaders, 
and rushed with a few brave men towards the largest 
breach, hoping to rally them by his example. He 
fought like a lion with indomitable courage, over- 
threw all who crossed his path, was covered with 
his own blood and that of the infidels, and piled the 
dead in heaps around him. By his side, John of 
Dalmatia vainly multiplied his prodigies of valor ; 
Francis of Toledo, whose great heart knows not 



THK IvAST C^BSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 227 

fear, surpasses Achilles, and pounces like an eagle 
upon his prey. Theophilus Palaeologus exclaims : 
"I would rather die than live," and disappearing 
amid the enemy, finds a glorious death. Constan- 
tine is left alone: "What!" he says sorrowfully, 
1 ' is there not one Christian who will deliver me from 
these miseries?" As he spoke, he fell under the 
sabre strokes of two Ottomans, one of whom struck 
him in the face, the other in the back ; and the sev- 
enth of the line of the Palaeologi, Constantine 
Dragoses, the last of the Greek emperors, lay amid 
the numerous victims of this fatal day. 

With the death of the emperor, resistance ceased; 
the rout was general, and the Turks rushed in 
through Caligaria gate, after having crossed the 
heap of dead bodies which filled the trenches. 
Supposing that they had still to combat a garrison 
of fifty thousand men, and that they would meet 
the same opposition in every section of the city, they 
massacred all the soldiers who were endeavoring to 
escape. In the first heat of the pursuit, two thous- 
and victims were thus immolated; at last they be- 
came aware of the real weakness of the Greeks, and 
put an end to the carnage, because it was more ad- 
vantageous to the victors to secure prisoners, who 
were a bait to their avarice. The inhabitants, 
overpowered by terror, ran in crowds towards the 
harbor, of which the enemy did not yet hold posses- 
sion. The fifty Turks who had first obtained en- 
trance had been repulsed, and many fugitives made 
good their escape to the Greek and Genoese vessels. 
The guards, seeing the numbers who were hastening 
to the harbor rapidly increasing, closed the gates 
and threw the keys into the sea. 



228 THK LAST CESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Such was the size of Constantinople, that for a 
time many of the inhabitants were ignorant of the 
sad fate which awaited them. When the report was 
circulated that the Turks had entered the city, some 
refused to believe it; but a few moments sufficed to 
destroy their false security. As soon as the public 
misfortune was known as a certainty, the houses 
and convents were deserted; the trembling inhabi- 
tants collected in the streets and in the squares like 
bands of timid animals; then, upon hearing that the 
Turks were approaching, they took refuge in the 
church of St. Sophia, towards which rushed also 
the crowd which had been driven back from the 
harbor. In less than an hour the sanctuary, the 
nave, the galleries, were filled with old men, women, 
and children, who barred the doors. 

The Turks arrived, broke open the doors, and the 
work of destruction commenced. Nothing arrested 
them; neither the groans of fathers, nor the tears of 
women, nor the weakness of old men, nor the cries 
of children, nor the supplications of the wounded. 
In the course of an hour all the men were bound 
with ropes, the women with their veils and cinc- 
tures. The streets were filled with these unhappy 
captives, led by the conquerors in long files like ani- 
mals destined for slaughter. If any attempted to 
resist, they were compelled by blows to hasten their 
steps; for the invaders were eager to secure addi- 
tional booty. The same scenes of rapine and deso- 
lation were repeated in every convent and church, 
in every palace and dwelling of this once powerful 
city. The number reduced to slavery during the 
sack, which lasted three days, is estimated to have 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 22g 

been sixty thousand; the captives were exchanged 
or sold, according to the caprice or interest of their 
masters, and dispersed in different provinces of the 
Ottoman empire. 

Driven b}^ despair at the sight of the enemy en- 
tering Constantinople, the historian Phranza, chief 
secretary of the emperor, precipitated himself into 
the midst of the Turks, but, although, he did not wit- 
ness the death of his master, he did not find the 
death he sought for himself; he fell with his family 
into the hands of the victors. After four months of 
slavery, he succeeded in recovering his liberty, and 
the following year he went to Adrianople and re- 
deemed his wife, who belonged to the chief of 
cavalry; his son and daughter were dead. Car- 
dinal Isadore, to whom had been intrusted the 
defence of the line extending from the gate of the 
Cynegion to the church of St. Demetrius, was among 
the prisoners. It is said that, seeing the city 
must fall, he dressed himself as a common citizen, 
was sold as a captive of no value, and after hav- 
ing incurred many dangers, he made his escape to 
Rome. 

The church of St. Sophia, the wonder of the 
world, the temple elevated to the honor of God, was 
not spared. The statues, master-pieces of sculpture, 
were broken to pieces, the gold and silver vessels 
were removed or destroved, and horses were fed at 
the altar. 

The Greeks still held possession of the ramparts 
facing the harbor, which had not yet been attacked, 
and they remained at their posts until the invaders 
fell upon them from the rear. At the same time, 



230 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

another portion of the Ottoman army scaled the 
walls not far from the gate of Petra. Then the 
fleet, which still held possession of the chain and 
the entrance of the exterior harbor, and w T hich 
had signalized its valor by its resistance to the 
Turks, took advantage of the moment when the 
Turkish crew were engaged in the work of pillage to 
make their escape. Resistance now became impos- 
sible, and the defenders of the ramparts onty thought 
of their own safety. All the gates were broken 
open, and the enemy poured in with impetuosity. 
As the grand duke IyUcas Notaras saw the Turks 
approaching the post committed to his charge, he 
retreated towards his palace, followed by a small 
number of his companions. Some fell into the 
hands of the Turks before reaching their dwellings; 
others found in their homes neither wife nor chil- 
dren, nor goods. They were made captive, and were 
not permitted to mourn the loss they had sustained. 
Old men, incapable from their infirmities or age 
of marching with the rest, were massacred with- 
out mercy, and children were cast into the streets 
and public squares. Lucas Notaras was arrested as 
he gained his dwelling; Orklan, grandson of Soli- 
man, who had been brought forward by the Greeks 
as an aspirant to the throne in opposition to Ma- 
homet, precipitated himself from the top of a tower 
to escape falling into the hands of the sultan, whose 
cruelty he dreaded. 

A sad scene was witnessed when the Italian vessels 
prepared to leave Constantinople. The shore was 
thronged with men, women, children and religious, 
who with tears and entreaties implored the sailors 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 23 1 

to take them on board. But it was decreed that 
they should drink the bitter chalice to the dregs. 
The vessels did not suffice to convey the great num- 
bers begging to be received: the Venetians and 
Genoese selected their own countrymen, and aban- 
doned the rest to their fate. It would be impossible 
to describe the rage of Mahomet at the sight of the 
boats thus eluding his grasp. The inhabitants of 
Galata escaped, carrying with them such precious 
articles as they could collect together. Saganos- 
Pasha, Mahomet's favorite minister, strove to arrest 
their flight and swore to them by the head of the 
sultan that no injury should be done them. "Do 
not depart," he cried to them from the shore, " fear 
nothing. You are the friends of the sultan ; your 
city shall be inviolate ; no hostile act shall be com- 
mitted within its precincts. We will form with you 
an alliance far more advantageous to you than the 
one which bound you to the Romans. Let not fear 
of Mahomet induce you to a step so adverse to your 
interests." All to whom the opportunity offered 
departed, notwithstanding these assurances. The 
rest, after deliberating upon the best course to be 
pursued, went with their magistrates and prostrated 
themselves at the feet of the sultan, presenting him 
the keys of the city. He received them with great 
kindness and addressed to them a few words calcu- 
lated to inspire confidence. Only five large vessels 
set sail ; the remainder were abandoned by the sail- 
ors. These, being favored by the wind, left the 
harbor of a city once so flourishing, whose destinies 
were so soon to change under the yoke of the infidel. 
The Venetian galleys followed the example of the 
Genoese and departed from the capital. 



232 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

"0 city, capital of all other cities!" exclaims the 
historian Ducas, whose grief at the sight of the con- 
dition of Constantinople finds vent in touching 
lamentations, "O city, centre of the world, the glory 
of Christians and the confusion of barbarians, O city, 
second paradise, planted with all trees fertile in spir- 
itual fruit! Paradise, where is thy beauty? State, 
people, army, once so numerous, you have disap* 
peared as a vessel which goes down at sea. Superb 
houses, magnificent palaces, sacred temples, I ad- 
dress you to-day as if you were living beings and 
could listen to my lamentations, and like Jeremiah, 
I call you to witness my sorrow and my tears. . . . 
What tongue is eloquent enough to depict the excess 
of misery and disgrace endured b}^ the inhabitants 
when they were transported, not from Jerusalem to 
Babylon and Assyria, but from Constantinople to 
Syria, Egypt, Armenia, Persia, Arabia, Africa, Asia 
Minor and many other provinces, where their lan- 
guage was not spoken, and where their religion and 
their Sacred Writings w^ere unknown ? Sun, and }^ou 
also, O earth, tremble and weep over the utter ruin 
of our nation, which God, by a just judgment, de- 
creed in punishment of our sins." 

Thus fell, under the sword of the Ottomans, the 
city seated on seven hills, the ancient Byzantium, 
eleven hundred and twenty-five years after its recon- 
struction by Constantine the Great. This destiny, 
for a long time presaged by the internal dissensions 
of the empire and the moral degredation of her sov- 
ereigns and people, was reserved by divine Provi- 
dence for the House of the Palseologi, the first of the 
name having solicited against his country the pro- 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 233 

tection and assistance of the Turkish prince. His 
weak successors, almost all of whom w T ere either 
imprudent or cowardly, appeared as courtiers before 
the sultan, served as mercenaries in his armies, and 
conquered cities in his name. In gratitude for the 
assistance, so zealously tendered to the Ottoman 
arms, Mahomet destroyed the nationality of the peo- 
ple whom he subjugated. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MAHOMET AT CONSTANTINOPLE — CONQUEST OF 

PELOPONNESUS — END OF THE DYNASTY 

OF THE PAI^OEOGI. 

Entry of Mahomet into Constantinople— Church of St. Sophia trans- 
formed into a mosque — Notaras conducted before Mahomet — The 
head of the Greek emperor exposed upon a column — Visit of the 
sultan to the grand duke— His entry into the imperial palace— Death 
of Lucas Notaras and his children— Departure of the fleet laden 
with booty — Election of a patriarch— Return of the sultan to Adrian- 
ople — Insurrection of the Greeks and the Albanian auxiliaries 
against Demetrius and Thomas, brothers of the emperor Constantine 
— Tourkhan dispatched to the aid of the Greek princes— His advice 
to Demetrius and Thomas— Submission of the Albanians — Dissen- 
sions between Demetrius and Thomas— Cruelty of Thomas — Success 
of Mahomet — The whole southern coast of Peloponnesus subjugated 
by the Ottomans— Thomas renews hostilities against the Turks and 
his brother — The sultan marches a second time against the two des- 
pots — Fate of Demetrius and Thomas Palaeologus— End of the Greek 
rule in Peloponnesus — Fall of Trebizond — The empress Helen — 
Humiliation of the last Palasologi — Sorrow and terror of Europe — 
Useless efforts to excite a crusade. 

Mahomet did not wish to enter the city with the 
assailants; he waited outside the walls until he was 
informed that Constantinople was entirely in the 
hands of his troops. He made his triumphal entry 
through the gate of St. Romain into the capital of 
the empire he had destroyed. He was accompanied 
by his viziers, his pashas, his guards and a brilliant 
court; according to Ducas, each one of these was 
gifted with the strength of Hercules and the skill 
of Apollo, and on the field of battle was equal to 
ten other men. The conqueror was struck with 

(234) 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 235 

astonishment and surprise on beholding the beauti- 
ful situation of the city, seated upon seven hills, 
and upon viewing its palaces and churches, their 
majestic domes gilded by the rays of the sun. On 
entering the hippodrome, his attention was attracted 
by a singular monument of antiquity, consisting of 
a brass column formed of the bodies of three ser- 
pents twined round each other. It had formerly 
supported the golden tripod consecrated in the 
temple of Delphi by the Greeks, in gratitude for 
their victory over Xexes. As an evidence of his 
strength, Mahomet broke with one stroke of his 
battle-axe the lower jaw of one of these monsters, 
which were regarded by the Turks as the idols or 
talismans of Constantinople. 

Having arrived at the basilica of St. Sophia, he 
dismounted at the grand entrance and seemed eager 
to take possession of this superb cathedral of the 
Church of the East. He contemplated with delight 
and admiration its hundred and seven columns, 
covered with the rarest marbles and the granite of 
Thessaly, Epirus and Egypt; the eight porphyry 
columns, the pious offering of a Roman lady, re- 
moved from the Temple of the Sun constructed by 
Aurelian at Baalbec; the eight columns of green 
marble from the ancient temple of Diana at 
Ephesus, presented by the magistrates of that city; 
and other columns taken from temples consecrated 
to Jupiter at Cyzica, Athens and the Cyclades, and 
the pavement formed of marble brought from Thes- 
saly and the country of the Molossians. The col- 
losal statues of the apostles and of Christ, of the 
saints and angels, the large number of beautifully 



236 THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

finished mosaics, and the ornaments of the altar, 
fixed the eye of Mahomet. He viewed with equal 
delight the galleries and arches. As he descended 
from the cupola, he perceived a soldier occupied in 
breaking some precious marble slabs, the veining of 
which so closely resembled waves, that from the 
four doors of the church the water seemed to be 
flowing out, emblematic of the four rivers of Para- 
dise. Desirous of preserving this monument of his 
glory, he dealt the soldier a heavy blow with his 
cimeter, saying, "I gave you the treasures of the 
city and the prisoners, but the edifices belong to 
me." 

Having completed the examination of the temple, 
the conqueror ordered a muezzin to call the people 
to prayer from the top of the loftiest tower ; ascend- 
ing the high altar, where a few days before the 
Christian mysteries had been celebrated, he himself 
consecrated the cathedral of St. Sophia to Islamism. 
The costly vessels and rich vestments which served 
for Christian worship had already been removed by 
the soldiers; it only remained to overthrow the 
cross. The walls, enriched with paintings in fresco 
and with mosaics were washed, purified, divested 
of every ornament by the infidels. The vaults of 
the temple erected in honor of the Word and of the 
Divine Wisdom, resounded henceforth to the Mus- 
sulman's cry : There is but one God and Mahomet is 
his prophet. 

Erected by Constantine the Great, the church of 
St. Sophia had been twice burned during a disturb- 
ance by the mob, and it had been also injured by 
an earthquake. Theodosius the younger first, and 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 237 

Justinian next, raised it from its ruins. Under the 
latter emperor, the architect, Anthemius of Tralles, 
drew up the plan and employed ten thousand work- 
men to execute it. Justinian himself daily superin- 
tended their labors and excited their activity by 
praises and rewards. At the solemn feast of the 
dedication, five years, eleven months and ten days 
after the first stone had been laid, he exclaimed 
with pious vanity : "I give thee glory, O God ! 
who hast granted me to finish so great a work. O 
Solomon! I have surpassed you." This temple, 
which at the present moment is an imposing monu- 
ment of the glorious reign of this prince, was the 
scene of magnificent court pomps and of the holy 
festivals of religion. It was used for coronations, 
triumphs, marriages of the emperors, the public 
ceremonies of the church, and for ecclesiastical as- 
semblies and councils : it was the sanctuary not 
only of the capital, but of the whole empire, the 
master-piece of sacred architecture in Christendom. 
It was the custom of the Greek emperors, after 
having gained a victory over their enemies, to ter- 
minate their triumphal march by a prayer in the 
basilica of St. Sophia. To conform to this custom, 
Mahomet assumed possession of the empire by his 
prayer at the high altar of this temple. But al- 
though the Turks preserved this majestic edifice, 
they did not spare the other churches, which Jus- 
tinian and succeeding Greek emperors had erected 
in the most frequented quarters of Constantinople 
and its environs, on the shores of the sea and on the 
heights overlooking the coasts of Asia and Europe. 
They were sacked by the Turks, and the beautiful 
statuary broken to pieces. 



238 THK LAST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

Upon leaving the temple of Divine Wisdom, now 
transformed into a mosque, Mahomet ordered the 
admiral, Lucas Notaras, to be brought before him. 
' ' Contemplate," he said to him, "the heaps of the 
slain, the throng of captives ; behold the result of 
your refusal to surrender the city." "My lord," 
replied Notaras, "it was not in my power nor in that 
of the emperor to deliver Constantinople to you, 
particularly after my master received letters urging 
him to resistance." The sultan's suspicions fell 
immediately upon Khalil-Pasha ; but concealing his 
feelings, he enquired if the emperor had embarked 
on one of the Genoese vessels which had so fortu- 
nately escaped from the harbor. Notaras replied that 
he did not know, as he was at the palace when the 
Turks entered the city. At that moment the sultan 
received information that the emperor had been 
killed by two Janizaries. He ordered a search to be 
made for his body, and the head to be brought to 
him. He spoke kindly to Notaras, and directed a 
large sum of money to be given to him, his wife and 
each of his children ; promising moreover to restore 
him his property and the offices he had held under 
the emperor. Flattered by these favors, the trator 
Notaras furnished the sultan a list of the principal 
officers of the court and of the State. Mahomet of- 
fered a reward for the heads of all of them. 

The corpse of Constantine was found amid a heap 
of the slain. His head, with that of Orkhan, was 
laid at the feet of the conqueror. Constantine the 
Great dedicated to the memory of his mother, Hel- 
ena, a square facing the church of St. Sophia, and 
named it Augusteon. In this square the emperor 



THK IvAST C^SSARS OF EYZANTIUM. 239 

Theodosius had erected a leaden column sermounted 
by a silver statue of himself, weighing fourteen 
thousand eight hundred marks (7,400 lbs.). Justi- 
nian I. replaced the leaden column by one of por- 
phyry; and the silver statue of Theodosius made 
way for a colossal bronze statue representing Jus- 
tinian on horseback, holding in his left hand a 
globe surmounted by a cross, and extending his 
right towards the east to represent his dominion over 
that portion of the w T orld. On the summit of this 
column, under the feet of the horse of Justinian the 
victorious, was laid the head of the most courageous 
and most unfortunate of the Greek emperors : a 
cruel irony, when we remember the custom in the 
east of addressing a conqueror with the words: 
"May the heads of thy enemies fall under thy horses' 
feet!" During the day this bloody trophy remained 
exposed to the public gaze ; in the evening the skin 
was removed from the head and sent in sign of tri- 
umph to the princes of Persia, Arabia and many 
Turkish provinces. The Greeks were permitted to 
bury their emperor with funeral honors. Those who 
had escaped being made prisoners were allowed to 
remain at Galata. The last grand duke of the By- 
zantium empire, Notaras, continued to occupy his 
palace in the city. 

The following day Mahomet traversed Constanti- 
nople on horseback and visited the grand duke in 
his palace. Notaras went out to meet him and 
placed all his treasures at his feet, saying they had 
been reserved for him. "Who then," demanded 
Mahomet angrily, "gave me possession of the city 
and all its treasures?" "God," answered the 



240 THE lyAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

trembling Notaras. "Then," said the sultan, 
"my thanks are due to God and not to you." 
Harsh as seemed, he nevertheless visited the wife 
of Notaras, an aged princess, confined to bed by 
illness. He addressed her with tender expressions 
of filial respect. "I beg you, mother," he said to 
her, "not to be afflicted by what has happened; we 
must submit to the orders of God. I can return 
you more than you have lost. L,et your only care 
be to recover your health." He sent for the sons 
of the grand duke, who threw themselves at his feet 
and humbly thanked him for his kindness. Ma- 
homet continued his passage through the desolate 
city, which presented the appearance of a vast 
desert, meeting an occasional band of marauders in 
search of the booty which might have escaped the 
sack of the preceeding day. 

Returning from his inspection of the capital, the 
sultan entered the imperial palace. Struck by the 
mournful solitude of these apartments, the dwelling 
of the hundred successors of Constantine, and once 
so brilliant, he quoted a Persian verse sadly applic- 
able to its present condition : ' ' The spider has spun 
its web in the palace of the Caesars ; the royal halls 
of Efrasiab resound to the mournful cry of the 
screech-owl." This philosophical reflection upon 
the instability of human grandeur, did not prevent 
Mahomet from abandoning himself to the intoxica- 
tion of his triumph and to every gratification. A 
splendid banquet was prepared to which the sultan 
invited the most illustrious persons of his empire ; 
he there drank to excess, and when nearly over- 
powered by wane, he ordered one of his officers to 



THK I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 24I 

bring him Notaras' youngest son, a boy about four- 
teen years of age. The father, in despair, told the 
messenger of the tyrant that he would never will- 
ingly part with his son, that he would rather perish 
under the axe of the executioner. Indignant at 
the refusal, Mahomet sent an order to the execu- 
tioner to bring before him Notaras, his sons, and 
Cantacuzenas, his son-in-law. Notaras bade adieu 
to his wife, and presented himself in the banquet 
hall. The sultan reserved the youngest to serve as 
his page, and ordered the others to be beheaded. 
At this last moment, the grand duke recovered the 
elevation of soul which had deserted him. As his 
children deplored their fate with cries and lamenta- 
tions, the father consoled them, exhorting them to 
die as Christians, adding "Thou art just, O Lord!" 
When his sons had been executed in his presence, 
he asked the executioner to allow him to enter a few 
moments in a neighboring chapel to offer a prayer. 
The bodies of his children were still palpitating 
when he returned and was himself beheaded. The 
remains were cast into the street and remained un- 
buried. The heads were carried to the tyrant who 
placed them before him upon his table. Other 
notable Spaniards, Venetians and Greek lords, 
whose lives had been spared at first, afterwards fell 
victims to the ferocity of the conqueror. A few 
saved their lives by paying seventy thousand ducats 
to Saganos Pasha. 

Mahomet lost no time in completing the work of 

conquest, and the third day after the fall of the city 

he gave orders for the departure of the fleet, that he 

might with more tranquility meditate his vast de- 

16 



242 THK I,AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

signs. The vessels were heavily laden with pre- 
cious stuffs, gold and silver, plate, brass, copper 
and bronze vases, a large number of books and 
prisoners of every condition. The tents of the 
camp were as full of booty as the ships. Dogs were 
led by chains of gold; the housings of horses were 
of gold cloth. Books were heaped in wagons and 
transported to the east and the west; ten volumes 
of Aristotle, of Plato, with works of theology were 
sold for one piece of money. Thus it happened 
that the noblest productions of the literature of the 
ancient Greeks were destroyed or dispersed. For- 
tunately, a portion of this classic wealth was se- 
curely placed in Italy, and the discovery made by 
German workmen now braves the ravages of time 
and barbarians. The Turks tore off the gold from 
the beautiful bindings of the Sacred Scriptures, sold 
the gold, and* cast the books aside as useless. 
Pictures were burned and statues destroyed. 

At last these scenes of devastation came to an 
end. The day after the departure of the fleet, Ma- 
homet made his triumphal entrance into Constanti- 
nople, empty and desolate, without a monarch and 
without inhabitants; the city, however, could not 
be deprived of its admirable position, which will 
always fit it to be the capital of a great empire. . In 
the midst of the public rejoicing, the sultan con- 
sidered, as a true statesman, the manner of securing 
his conquest by such regulations as were suitable to 
the customs and wants of his subjects. By pro- 
clamation he invited all the inhabitants who had 
concealed themselves to return to their homes, 
where they should remain unmolested and be at 



THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 243 

liberty to live according to their former customs. 
To conciliate the affection of the Christians, the sul- 
tan respected their worship and discipline, and as 
their patriarch had just died, he desired them to 
elect a new spiritual chief, and to consecrate him 
with the usual ceremonies. Under the Christian 
emperors the newly elected patriarch was presented 
with a golden sceptre enriched with jewels, and a 
horse from the imperial stables magnificently capar- 
isoned; mounted on this, the highest dignitary of 
the Church, accompanied by the body of the clergy, 
went to the palace of the patriarch, where the priests 
offered him their homage. The emperor, seated on 
his throne with uncovered head, handed him the 
crosier, the symbol of ecclesiastical authority. The 
hymns appropriated for the occasion having been 
sung, the emperor arose, holding the sceptre in his 
right hand; standing on his right was the Caesar, 
on his left the metropolitan of Heraclea. The patri- 
arch thrice saluted the assembly, and prostrated 
himself at the feet of the emperor. The monarch, 
elevating his sceptre, pronounced aloud the follow- 
ing words: "The Holy Trinity, Who has bestowed 
the empire upon me, confers upon you the patri- 
archate of the new Rome." 

As soon as the Senator George Scholarius, also 
known under the name of Gennadius, had been 
elected by the small number of ecclesiastics remain- 
ing, Mahomet required that the usual ceremonies 
should be observed. The patriarch was conducted 
by the electors to the grand hall of the imperial 
palace, which was magnificently adorned. The 
sultan, having invested him with his new dignity, 



244 TH £ IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

gave him a splendid repast, conversing with him in 
the most cordial manner ; he made him a present of 
a jeweled sceptre, emblem of the civil and religious 
authority conferred upon him saying: "May hea- 
ven protect you! Under all circumstances, rely 
upon my friendship and enjoy all the privileges 
possessed by your predecessors." Mahomet then 
accompanied him to the very gate of the palace and 
presented him a white horse richly caparisoned. 
He ordered the viziers and pashas to conduct him 
to his residence. 

Having established good order in Constantinople, 
Mahomet turned his attention to the Genoese of 
Galata. He ordered the census to be taken of 
those who remained in the city. The houses of 
those who had escaped were forced open, but were 
preserved from pillage. An inventory was made 
of the furniture, and a delay of three months was 
granted during which the proprietors could return. 
But this term having expired, the property was to 
be confiscated. The sultan ordered the soldiers to 
demolish the walls of Galata on the side of the land, 
but he left untouched that portion of the enclosure 
resting on the harbor. He collected a large num- 
ber of masons and workmen to repair the injury 
done by the Turkish artillery, and also to add to 
the fortifications of Constantinople, which he made 
the metropolis of the Ottoman empire to the preju- 
dice of Bursa and Adrianople, which became pro- 
vincial cities. He directed also, under penalty of 
death, that five thousand families from Anatolia 
and Roumaina, should come, and occupy the vacant 
houses in the capital before the end of September. 



THK LAST CESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 245 

By public proclamations, he promised that all 
Greeks, who could prove their noble birth, should 
be treated with more distinction than they had en- 
joyed under the emperor. Many nobles relying 
upon these promises repaired to Constantinople 
upon the appointed day, but they paid for their 
blind confidence w T ith their lives. 

Twenty days after the fall of Constantinope, 
Mahomet set out for Adrianople, carrying with him 
an immense booty and a large number of slaves, 
among whom were many noble Greek ladies and 
young girls. The wife of the grand-duke Notaras, 
an intrepid and virtuous woman, much beloved by 
the poor for her extreme charity, died on the way. 
The sultan also conducted as a prisoner his grand 
vizier Khalil, who had been bought by the gold of 
the Greeks. After forty days of captivity, he w r as 
beheaded and his friends w T ere forbidden to weep for 
his death. From Adrianople, which he entered 
with triumphal pomp, Mahomet addressed messages 
to the Sultan of Egypt, the Shah of Persia, and the 
Scherif of Mecca, announcing the conquest of Con- 
stantinople. Adrianople soon witnessed the arrival 
of numbers of Christian princes or their ambassa- 
dors who went to congratulate the sultan and offer 
him presents. The conqueror, seated on a lofty 
throne, received them w 7 ith arrogance and sum- 
moned them to pay their annual tribute. 

We must now trace the history of the last dynasty 
which reigned at Constantinople to its extinction. 
Demetrus and Thomas Palseologus, brothers of Con- 
stantine and despots of Morea, were overwhelmed 
with consternation at the news of the death of the 



246 the: last C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

emperor and the destruction of the Greek monarchy. 
Having no hope of being able to resist the formida- 
ble enemies of the Greeks, they determined to es- 
tablish themselves in Italy, with a few nobles, who 
were willing to follow their fortunes. Mahomet re- 
lieved their anxiety by exacting of them only the 
payment of an annual tribute of twelve thousand 
I ducats. But the respite of seven years which he 
granted Morea, whilst he ravaged the continent and 
islands, was a period of suffering, discord, and 
misery. In place of Constantine, the archons wished 
to proclaim Demetrius, the elder of the surviving 
brothers; Thomas, the younger, who w^as ambitious 
and tyrannical, was unwilling to yield the crown, 
and the two divided Peloponnesus. Dissensions 
next broke out among the Greeks, and Emmanuel 
Cantacuzenus, aiming at the supreme authority, 
headed a faction which repulsed the Palseologi. 
On the other hand, the Albanian auxiliaries refused 
obedience to the two despots, ravaged the country, 
and offered the Turks to pay the same amount of 
tribute as the Greeks with the view of thus securing 
the sovereignty of Peloponnesus. 

Next to Emmanuel Cantacuzenus, the two most 
dangerous chiefs of the revolt against Demetrius 
and Thomas were two Greeks, Kenterion Zacharias 
and Lukanos, brothers-in-law of the emperor Con- 
stantine, whom Thomas had, for some time, held as 
prisoners. These two captives succeeded in making 
their escape, and joined by the Albanians and the 
Greek rebels, they threatened to deprive the Palae- 
ologi of the government of Peloponnesus which had 
been accorded them by the sultan. The rule of 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 247 

these princes would have been brought to an end, 
had not Hasan, the Greek commander at Corinth, 
solicited aid from the Porte. Tourakham, who 
thirty years before, had pushed his conquests as far 
as L,acedenon, was sent with his sons and a Turk- 
ish army to Peloponnesus to protect the Greeks 
against the Albanians (1454). He assembled the 
Palseologi, and exhorted them to act in concert w r ith 
the Greeks, who naturally would have more confi- 
dence in them, their countrymen, than in him, their 
former enemy, although now their ally. 

"If the sultan," he said in conclusion, "had not 
taken pity on you and aided you to maintain pos- 
session of your thrones, which were almost lost to 
you, you would now be wanderers and exiles. You 
must admit that your administration has been very 
bad; there exists then for you an absolute necessity 
to govern your subjects with more wisdom. I 
particularly exhort you not to hasten your destruc- 
tion by your domestic dissensions. Put dow r n with 
a strong hand an}^ attempt to rebel, Chastise with- 
out mercy the wicked and reward the good. The 
proper distribution of punishments and recompenses 
has elevated the Turks to the summit of power." 

Tourakhan, having thus advised the two brothers, 
marched against the Albanians. The despot Deme- 
trius, at the head of a small body of Greeks, fol- 
lowed the Turks to the defiles of Barbostenis, where 
the Albanians had placed the women and children 
for protection. The Turks and the Greeks united 
their efforts against the enemy. In the night the 
Albanians took flight, and ten thousand women fell 
into the hands of the Turks. Thomas, with an- 



248 THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

other division of the army, marched towards the 
city of (Btos, which had declared in favor of Ken- 
terion; it purchased peace by the surrender of a 
thousand slaves, arms, and provisions. Tourakhan 
obtained the prompt submission of the other Al- 
banian chiefs by allowing them to keep the horses 
the}^ had taken from the Greeks. 

Before his departure, Mahomet's lieutenant again 
exhorted Demetrius and Thomas to live in peace 
with each other. "If you are united," he said, 
"you will prosper; but if you are at variance, your 
undertakings will not succeed. Make yourselves 
respected by your subjects and punish crime inex- 
orably." Far from profiting by the wise counsels 
of Tourkhoman, the Greek princes displayed no 
vigor and w T ere even more indulgent to their sub- 
jects, hoping thus to secure their fidelity, whilst in 
reality they were encouraging conspiracies and a 
spirit of innovation. The chief rebel, Lukanos, 
united a few of the Byzantines, the Albanians and 
Peloponnesians in a conspiracy, having for its aim 
to render the cities independent of their despot. 
The conspirators applied to the commander Hasan, 
who rejected their proposition to refer the matter to 
the Porte, as they w T ere unable to pay the tribute 
which had been imposed. Besides, Demetrius and 
Thomas baffled their projects by sending to the 
court of Istambal their annual tribute of twelve 
thousand ducats. Pleased with this promptitude, 
the sultan expedited a decree addressed to the prin- 
cipal families of Peloponnesus, in which he swore 
by the great prophet Mahomet, by the seven Korans, 
by the hundred and twenty-four prophets, by his 



THE LAST CAESARS OF BYZANTIUM. 249 

own sabre, by the soul of his father, that he would 
suffer no injury to be done to them, their children, 
nor their possessions; that they should live in peace 
and should be better protected than under the reign 
of his predecessors. 

But with an inexplicable disregard of the dangers 
to which they w T ere exposed, the two despots soon 
weakened their pow T er by domestic quarrels, which 
were appeased neither by the ties of relationship, 
the oaths exchanged at the foot of the altar, nor the 
imperious force of necessity. Spandurgino says, so 
great was the hatred between the two brothers, that 
one w r ould have eaten the heart of the other. Al- 
ways fighting to satisf}' their hatred, they consumed 
in an unnatural war, the alms and resources sent 
from the west, and used their power only to inflict 
barbarous and arbitrary punishments. Thomas, 
who was no less tyrannical than the sultan, although 
far inferior to him in ability and pow r er, reproduced 
in Peloponnesus the scenes of violent usurpation 
and the assassinations so often repeated by Ma- 
homet. In order to obtain possession of Glarenza 
and AchaYa, he enticed the lord of these districts, 
his relative, to Patras, under the pledge of a safe 
conduct. Then he cast him, with his sons, into 
prison, w T here they died of starvation. He exercised 
atrocious cruelties on the son-in-law of the prince of 
Achaia; he cut off his hands, nose and ears and 
plucked out his eyes. In his insatiable ambition, 
he despoiled of his possessions and deprived of sight 
Theodore Bokali, one of the great proprietors of 
Peloponnesus. Emmanuel Cautacuzenus, for whom 
he intended the same fate, succeeded in escaping 



25O THK I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

and placed himself at the head of the revolted Al- 
banians. To please them he changed his Greek for 
an Albanian name, ravaged the low country and 
besieged the two despots, Thomas and Demetrius, 
in their residences of Patras and Sparta. 

Mahomet had long meditated striking a final blow 
at the expiring power of these two princes. He 
considered the general disorder to be favorable to his 
designs of conquest. On the 5th of May, 1458, he 
set out from Constantinople with a large force, leav- 
ing on the way a division to besiege Corinth, and 
proceeded as far as Phlius in Peloponnesus, whose 
Albanian commander, Doxias, determined to offer a 
vigorous resistance, and retired with the inhabitants 
and his troops to a fortified eminence, whence he 
could defend the approach to the city. The sultan 
despising so weak an enemy, marched upon Harsos, 
whose garrison surrendered on the first demand. 
The Albanians who had sought refuge at Harsos 
attempted to escape, and Mahomet resolved to make 
an example of them to prevent others from imitat- 
ing them. By his order, the ankle and wrist bones 
of twenty of these unfortunate fugitives w r ere broken 
by blows of large clubs, and they were left thus 
mutilated to die in slow torture. The place of this 
atrocious execution received the Turkish name of 
Tokmak-Hissari (castle of bones). Another city, 
iEtos, situated 011 a mountain, was reduced to such 
extremity by the want of water, that the inhabitants 
moistened their bread with the blood of the beasts 
of burden, which they slaughtered. Overpowered 
by their sufferings, they were on the point of cap- 
itulating, when the Janizaries scaled the ramparts 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 25 1 

and pillaged the city. Mahomet next led his army 
to the city of Rupela, also called Akoba, where the 
Albanians and Greeks had sought an asylum with 
their families. After two days of combat, many of 
his soldiers were disabled, and he was about to 
withdraw his troops, when a deputation arrived in 
his camp offering to capitulate the city. It w r as 
spared, but the inhabitants were transferred to Con- 
stantinople. Having reached Pazenica, the sultan, 
through Cantacuzenus, summoned the Albanian 
garrison to surrender, but the proposition was re- 
jected, and they resisted the Ottoman troops. Can- 
tacuzenus, being suspected of encouraging them in 
their defence, lost the favor of Mahomet. In two 
days the sultan passed on to Tagea, where he was 
undecided whether to march upon Sparta, the 
asylum of the despot Thomas, or upon Epidaurus, 
then the residence of Demetrius. Finding the route 
from Tegea impossible for an army, he returned to 
invest Moklia or Moukhla. This place, defended 
by Asanes Demetrius, was advantageously situated 
upon an inaccessible mountain, After uselessly 
attempting to negotiate, Mahomet directed his bat- 
teries against the city, and destro}^ed the outer ram- 
part. The brave defenders retired behind their 
second line of fortifications, and resisted most obsti- 
nately. But the enemy having managed to come to 
an understanding with some parties w 7 ithin the 
walls, Asanes Demetrius and L,ukanos of Sparta, 
decided to surrender. "Say to your master," the 
sultan answered the envoys sent by them, "that I 
am ready to grant him peace and my friendship, 
upon condition that the portion of Peloponnesus 



252 TH£ I.AST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

now occupied by my troops shall be mine, that he 
will pay an annual tribute of five hundred pounds 
of gold for the part which he still possesses; as to 
Thomas, the prince of Patras, tell him that unless 
he cede his principality to me, I will take it from 
him by force of arms." Asanes Demetrius and 
Lukanos carried this message to the two despots. 
The uninterrupted success of the Ottoman arms 
decided the despots to accept the conditions imposed 
by the conqueror (July 4, 1458). Thus all the 
southern coast of Peloponnesus passed into the 
hands of the Ottomans. 

Before his departure for Constantinople, Mahomet 
visited Athens, of which Tourakhan had just taken 
possession. From that place he sent a messenger to 
the despots of Peloponnesus, demanding the ratifi- 
cation of the treaty, and the hand of the daughter 
of Demetrius in marriage. The despots signed the 
treaty, and Demetrius, following the disgraceful ex- 
ample of some of his ancestors, gave his daughter to 
Mahomet. Thomas soon violated his oath. Yield- 
ing to the suggestions of L,ukanos Nicephoras, he 
raised the standard of revolt, took Calaveita from 
the Ottomans, and a number of cities from Deme- 
trius, who immediately collected his forces and in- 
vested Scutari and Akoba. 

Mahomet, attributing the insurrection to the neg- 
ligence of the son of Tourakhan, deprived him of 
the government of Morea, and conferred it upon 
Hamsa. He forced the Greeks to raise the siege of 
Patras, and presented himself, with the despot, 
Demetrius, before Leontari, whither Thomas had 
retired. Thomas was defeated with a loss of two 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 253 

hundred men. The Ottomans continued to devas- 
tate the country, until the two brothers, seeing their 
ruin inevitable, met at Karri tza, and were apparently 
reconciled. 

Mahomet threw the blame of this alliance upon 
Hamsa, and replaced him in his command by Se- 
ganos-Pasha. When he arrived, he found the two 
brothers again in open hostility. Thomas had vio- 
lated his oath, had taken possession of L,aconia and 
Messina, his brother's domains, and he was besieg- 
ing Kalamata. He entered into negotiations with 
the sultan, who was willing to accept the offers of 
Thomas upon certain conditions. Far from keeping 
his promises, the despot was unable to fulfil even 
the stipulations of the former treaty. The moment 
of vengeance had, at last, arrived. Mahomet 
marched in person against the two brothers, (April, 
1460,) and soon appeared before Sparta. In his 
distress, Demetrius sought to shelter himself against 
the perfidy of his brother by betraying the cause of 
Greece. He had recourse to their common master; 
he repaired to the camp of the sultan, who received 
him with extreme kindness, promised him anew to 
many his daughter and to indemnify him for the 
cession of his turbulent province. Mahomet re- 
tained Demetrius near his person, placed a Turkish 
garrison in Sparta, took and pillaged Kastriza. He 
did not pardon the garrison for their valiant re- 
sistance which had cost the loss of many of his 
Janizaries. Notwithstanding the voluntary sub- 
mission of these warriors, three hundred were con- 
ducted to the public square and massacred; the 
commander was sawn in two. The sultan next 



254 THB IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

directed his march to I^eontari. The city was 
taken by assault, and six thousand slain, men and 
women, heaped indiscriminately with the bodies of 
beasts of burden attested the victory and vengeance 
of Mahomet, who forbade the men to spare the life 
even of a slave. He promised the garrison a free 
pardon when it capitulated; he swore that none of 
its defenders should be slain, nor reduced to slavery, 
nor even injured in any manner. But as soon as 
they came out from the fortifications, he assembled 
all, woman as well as men, to the number of thir- 
teen hundred and massacred them without mercy. 
These atrocities spread terror throughout Pelopon- 
nesus, and the garrisons of nearly all the other 
fortresses sent deputies to offer their submission. 
Crocontelos, the commander of St. George, cast 
himself at the feet of the sultan. Navarin and 
Arkadia, the two most strongly fortified ports of the 
Western coast, surrendered without attempting a 
defence. Ten thousand inhabitants of the latter 
place were transported to Constantinople to people 
the suburbs of the city. The despot Demetrius, 
brother of the magnanimous Constantine Dragoses, 
followed in the suite of the victor and witnessed the 
cruelties exercised upon the Greeks. According to 
the suggestion of this prince, who was unworthy of 
the blood which flowed in his veins, Mahomet dis- 
patched Isa, grandson of Ewrenos, towards the 
Eastern coast of Morea, to take possession of Napoli 
of Malvoisia, and to bring back the wife and 
daughter of the despot. Nicholas Palaeologus re- 
fused to give up the city; but he allowed the 
princess and his daughter to depart with Isa; the 



THK LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 255 

sultan sent them to Bceotia and ordered Demetrius 
to join them there. The despot Thomas, losing all 
hope of success after the fall of Leontari, abandoned 
Kalamata and embarked with his children. 

Confiding to the beglerbeg Saganos, the conquest 
of the remaining cities, Mahomet advanced along 
the coast to reconnoitre the Venetian ports of Modon 
and Pylos. The Venetians renewed their protesta- 
tions of friendship to the sultan. The Turkish cav- 
alry, nevertheless, continued their ravages around 
Pylos, carrying the Albanians captive. Mahomet 
returned to the north, taking possession on the way 
of a large number of cities which had not yet been 
subdued. The Albanian Doxas, the brave com- 
mander of Calaveita, was sawn in two. The Turks 
beheaded or sold as slaves the soldiers of the garri- 
son. The city of Caritena, defended by the Palaeo- 
logus Syceromalo, made a vigorous but ineffectual 
resistence. The castle of Salmenikos, under the 
command of another Palaeologus, Graitzas, held out 
still longer against the enemy, after the city itself 
had been taken and pillaged. Graitzas offered to 
yield the palace to the sultan, upon condition that 
he would withdraw some distance from the city and 
not disturb the garrison during their retreat. Ma- 
homet retired altogether leaving the affair in the 
hands of Hamsa who had been restored to his dig- 
nity of governor in the place of Saganos. 

Returning to Peloponnesus, the sultan passed 
through Athens, where he received information that 
Franco Acciainoli, his former favorite, was conspir- 
ing to achieve his independence. He conducted ten 
of the principal citizens as hostages to Constant!- 



256 THE IvAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

nople, and ordered Saganos to get rid of Franco. 
Saganos executed the order faithfully, and the last 
duke of Athens was strangled in his own tent. By 
his death the whole of Greece, with the exception of 
a few ports belonging to the Venetians, fell into the 
hands of the Ottomans. Mahomet assigned the city 
of Ainos as the residence of the despot Demetrius, 
and appointed him an annual revenue for his sup- 
port, but his daughter was not deemed worthy to 
become the wife of the sultan. The despot, Thomas, 
took refuge in Europe. His misfortunes obtained 
for him the hospitality of the Vatican ; the pope and 
cardinals granted him a pension of six thousand 
ducats. Thus in the tenth year of his reign and the 
seventh after the fall of Constantinople, Mahomet 
had utterly destroyed the government of the Greeks 
in Peloponnesus, and subjugated the whole of 
Greece with the exception of Coron, Modon, Pylos, 
Monembasia and Naupacta ; he had taken captive, 
expelled, strangled the princes of Laconia, Achaia 
and Attica, burned, depopulated their cities, sub- 
jected their defenders to the most cruel tortures. 
Therefore hatred of the Turks became rooted and 
hereditary in the hearts of the Greek people, who 
for more than three hundred years fought with in- 
defatigable energy to recover the independence they 
had lost by their own dissensions. 

The following year the despot Demetrius was 
joined in his exile by a companion in misfortune, 
David, the last of the princely race of Commenes, 
who, after the taking of Constantinople by the 
Latins, had laid the foundation of a new empire on 
the coast of the Black Sea. The sultan, pursuing 



THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 257 

his conquests in Asia Minor, attacked by sea and 
land the capitol of David, who had assumed the 
empty title of emperor of Trebizond. Appearing 
before this city, from which his admiral had been 
repulsed with considerable loss, he sent an envoy to 
David, with orders to address him peremptorily: 
"Will you preserve your life and wealth by re- 
signing your crown, or do you prefer to lose your 
crown, your wealth, and your life?" The weak 
David followed the example of the neighboring 
Mussulman, Prince of Sinope, who had delivered 
to the imperious Ottoman a fortified city, his 
artillery and garrison. He surrendered Trebizond 
and his kingdom to Mahomet, who assigned him 
the city of Seres for his residence and a revenue 
nearly equal to that which he sacrificed. The arti- 
cles of capitulation were faithfully executed, and 
after the ratification the deposed monarch embarked 
with his family for Constantinople. The Turks 
took immediate possession of Trebizond; the young 
men were distributed among the Spahis and Jani- 
zaries, the wealthiest citizens were sent to the capi- 
tal, and the remainder of the population were 
removed to the suburbs. Mahomet retained in cap- 
tivity the nephew of David, son of his brother and 
predecessor John, the legitimate heir of the throne 
usurped by David. The youngest of the eight sons 
of this unfortunate prince, renouncing the faith of 
his fathers, embraced Islamism at Adrianople. In 
this ancient abode of the Caesars, the last two princes 
of the Byzantine empire met at the gate of the sul- 
tan, the Palaeologus, Demetrius, and the Commenes 
David, both driven from their kingdoms, both living 

17 



258 the last c^ssars of byzantium. 

through the pity of their haughty conqueror, and 
kissing the dust under his feet. 

Not content with destroying the empire of Trebi- 
zond, Mahomet resolved to exterminate the family 
of Comnenes. Suspected for some frivolous cause 
of keeping up a correspondence with the king of 
Persia, Ouzoun-Hasan, the husband of his niece, 
David, with all his family, was cast into prison at 
Adrianople. The sultan, returning from Constanti- 
nople, ordered David to be brought before him, and 
gave him his choice between the Koran or death. 
The prince refused to abjure his religion, and his 
implacable enemy pronounced the decree of death 
against the entire family, ordering the bodies to be 
left without burial to serve as food for the dogs and 
birds of prey. The sentence was executed at Con- 
stantinople: David, his brother Alexias, his nephew, 
the younger son of his brother John, and seven of 
his own sons fell under the axe of the executioner. 
The eighth was spared because he was a Mussul- 
man. The daughter of David, whom the sultan had 
rejected as his wife, afterwards married Saganos, 
the governor of Thessaly, stipulating that she should 
preserve her religion; but in order to contract later a 
second marriage with a son of Ewrenos, she did not 
hesitate to embrace Islamism. The empress Helen 
suffered courageously and, like the mother of the 
Maccabees, died gloriously. In contempt of the 
sentence of the tyrant, whose anger she alone dared 
to brave, she rendered the last duties to her husband 
and sons. Clad in a coarse linen garment, she re- 
paired to the place of execution, dug a grave with 
her own hands, watched by the remains during the 



THE LAST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 259 

day to drive away the dogs and birds of prey, and 
at night confided to the earth the dear objects of her 
tenderness, cruelly immolated to the cupidity of the 
tyrant. The faithful wife and pious mother, over- 
whelmed by grief, did not long survive her loss. 

The unfortunate Demetrius, whose abject submis- 
sion excited the pity and contempt of Mahomet, sur- 
vived the family of Comnenes, At last he assumed 
the monks gown to bury all remembrance of the 
imperial mantle. The self-imposed exile of the 
despot Thomas, was, perhaps, as humiliating as the 
servitude of his brother. He left two sons, Andrew 
and Manuel, who were educated in Italy. The 
elder, despised by his enemies and a disgrace to his 
friends, degraded himself by his conduct and mar- 
riage. He sold successively to the kings of France 
and Aragon, his title of heir to the empires of Con- 
stantinople and Tr^bizond. Manuel Palseologus 
wished to revisit his native land. His return could 
cause no anxiety at the Porte, and the Sultan as- 
signed him considerable revenues. When he died, 
his funeral obsequies w^ere honored by a large con- 
course of Mussulmans and Christians. He left one 
son undistinguished amid the crowd of Turkish 
slaves, whose dress, manners and religion he was 
not ashamed to adopt. Thus fell, in the west and 
the east, the imperial race of Byzantium, crushed 
by shame and drowned in blood; thus the Greek 
power in Europe and Asia was concentrated in him- 
self, by the lord of the two seas and the two quarters 
of the world, as Mahomet II. styled himself after 
the fall of Constantinople. 

After the Turks became masters of Constantino- 



26o THE I.AST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

pie, Europe comprehened the magnitude of the loss 
which was destined to be the cause of a long series 
of wars and calamities to the nations which lay near 
the Ottoman domains. In future, their armies 
could invade Hungary unimpeded ; Hungary once 
subjugated, Itsly and the empire of Germany were 
exposed to attack. The Russians deeply regretted 
not having sent aid to Greece, which had long been 
for them a second country. The Russians remem- 
bered with gratitude that to Greece they owed 
Christianity, a knowledge of the arts, and different 
advantages of social life. In the city of Moscow, 
people then regarded Constantinople, as in modern 
Europe, Paris was regarded under the reign of the 
greatest King of France, L,ouis XIV. They had no 
other model for the magnificence of church cere- 
monies, for courtly pomp, for matters of taste and 
opinions. And yet, whilst deploring the fate of 
Constantinople, wearing the yoke of the foreigner, 
whilst compassionating the miseries of the Greeks, 
their historians rendered an impartial verdict of 
them and the Turks. Without fear of the laws, an 
empire is an unbridled courser. Constantine and 
his ancestors permitted the nobles to oppress the 
people; justice was no longer found in their tri- 
bunals, nor courage in their hearts; the judges 
gathered their wealth from the tears and blood of 
the innocent ; the Greek soldier was proud only of 
the beaut} 7 - of his garments ; the citizen did not 
blush to advance his interests by perfidy ; the sol- 
dier was not ashamed to fly. God at last hurled 
his thunder bolts against unworthy sovereigns, by 
raising up Mahomet, whose warriors sport with 



THK LAST C^SSARS OF BYZANTIUM. 26 1 

death on the battle field, and whose judges are in- 
corruptible. Thus have been accomplished the 
predictions of St. Methodius and St. L,eo the Wise, 
who long ago foretold that the sons of Ismael should 
conquer Byzantium; perhaps we may also see ac- 
complished the remainder of the prophecy, which 
promises the Russians a triumph over the children 
of Ismael and the sovereignty of the seven hills of 
Constantinople. 

Sorrow and terror enkindled among other nations 
of Europe the enthusiasm of the crusades. In the 
first moments of surprise, Philip the Good, Duke of 
Burgundy, a wise and aged prince offered to engage 
with all his forces in a crusade against the Otto- 
mans. The principal knights and barons of his 
state imitated his example. But various circum- 
stances caused the failure of the enterprise. Had a 
spark of this enthusiasm inflamed all hearts, had 
the union among Christian princes equalled their 
courage, had all the powers from Sweden to Naples 
risen against the infidels, the Europeans would un- 
doubtedly have retaken Constantinople, and driven 
back the Turks to their former possessions. But 
the condition of the Christian world and the dis- 
positions of the different rulers prevented the execu- 
tion of such a project. "Each country/ ' says 
iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who was familiar with 
the policy of this period, "is governed by a particu- 
lar sovereign, and each prince is influenced by indi- 
vidual interests. What eloquence could collect 
under the same standard so great a number of 
powers, naturally discordant and hostile to each 
other? Even could their troops be united, who 



262 THE LAST C^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 

would dare to fill the office of general ? What order 
could be established in such an army ? What would 
be its discipline ? Who would undertake to obtain 
supplies for so numerous a multitude ? Who would 
understand their language, or who could bring 
under subjection to one rule men so different in 
customs? Who could reconcile the English and 
the French, the Genoese and Aragonese, the Ger- 
mans and the people of Hungary and Bohemia ? If 
this war be undertaken with a small body of troops, 
they will be overpowered by the infidels ; if a large 
number be sent, they will be destroyed by their own 
disorders. ' ' 

Some years later, this same iEneas Sylvius, hav- 
ing become pope under the name of Pius II. 
sounded the alarm against the Turks, and passed 
the remainer of his life in efforts to excite a 
crusade. At the council of Mantua were present 
deputies from Peloponnesus, Rhodes, Cyprus, Les- 
bos, Epirus, Illyria and from nearly all the sover- 
eigns of Europe, and he endeavored to awaken in 
their hearts the zeal which animated his own. The 
assembly agreed to divide among the nations of 
Europe the expense of the war. For three years, 
they were to collect a tax of one-tenth of the reve- 
nue of the clergy, a thirtieth of the income of the 
laity, and a twentieth of the funds of the Jews 
destined to maintain fifty thousand men at arms. 
But discords and revolutions frustrated this design, 
and when the feeble and aged pontiff went to 
Ancona to place himself at the head of the crusade, 
he found there a multitude without commanders, 
without money or arms. All had some excuse for 



THE LAST C.^SARS OF BYZANTIUM. 263 

not fulfilling the engagement; the day of departure 
was indefinitely postponed, and the venerable head 
of the Church died suddenly at Ancona. The 
princes of Italy and the rest of Europe gave no 
further thought to the future, and renounced the 
project of a crusade. Ruled by momentary inter- 
ests, they directed their efforts to their personal 
aggrandizement, without troubling themselves to 
oppose a barrier to the progress of a people, whose 
final triumph had been prepared by a long series of 
successes. They saw with indifference the Eastern 
gate of Europe in the hands of the infidels, and the 
foundation made by the Ottoman upon the ruins of 
the Greek power of a vast empire, which seemed to 
bid defiance to the Christian world. 



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